Operation Able Archer

Sometime around November 1983, NATO conducted a primarily paper only exercise code named Able Archer. During this time, the U.S. came dangerously close to being hit by USSR nuclear weapons, at least twice.

This exercise is (or, was) documented in detail in an online video dubbed 1983: The Brink of Armageddon. Only a few pieces of communications equipment were ever deployed during the whole of the exercise, as communications (an annual, routine procedural exercise) was the chief concern of NATO at that time. Knowing that the Russians would be and in fact were closely monitoring and listening in, as they always did whenever NATO conducted such joint mock operations, they made it as realistic as they possibly could. Unbeknown to NATO officials, ho ...