Able Archer 83 Incident

In 1983, the Western powers decided to conduct a secret ten-day long NATO exercise, training soldiers for a potential nuclear war. A new form of communication was used during the exercise known as radio silences.

Because of the bad relationship between the USA and USSR during that period of time, some members of the Soviet government viewed it as an act of preparation for war. This led the USSR to place their forces on alert and readied their nuclear weapons. They believed that the USA wanted to attack them using nuclear weapons first.

Hostilities ended when the Able Archer 83 exercise ended on the 11th November. Fortunately, neither side had started a nuclear war.

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