Able Archer ’83

Able Archer 83 was a command post exercise by NATO starting on November 7, 1983, intended to simulate a period of conflict escalation, leading to a simulated DEFCON 1 nuclear attack. This exercise involved new elements like coded communication, radio silences, and heads of government, raising its realism. Given the tense US-Soviet relations and the arrival of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, the Soviet leadership saw Able Archer 83 as a potential ruse of war for a real first strike. In reaction, the USSR prepared its nuclear forces and heightened alertness in East Germany and Poland, even loading nuclear warheads onto planes. The situation de-escalated with the end of the exercise on November 11, advised by U.S. Lt. Gen. Leonard H. Perroots not to respond to the Warsaw Pact’s military readiness.

The legacy of Able Archer 83 is significant; when a 1990 report on the exercise was declassified in 2015, it revealed the event as a critical moment when the world came close to nuclear war, comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The revelation has been supported by further declassified documents, although some scholars dispute the severity of the threat.