Able Archer 83 | When the World was on the Brink of War

[@Darryl_Frost]

I was slightly involved in that exercise, as a communications specialist tech in the Navy, back in the day.

[@larryspiller6633]

I was stationed in Germany at the time. We had no clue as to what was going on other than we were put on alert quite regularly. We thought our Commanders were just playing Army for the hell of it. Average Soldiers were purposely, totally left in the dark as to our mission and areas of responsibilities. Like where we were supposed to get into the fight. All we really knew for sure is that we were out numbered by the neighbors to the east. That the Pershing Cruise 2 Nuclear missiles up on the hill were a serious threat to the enemy. Our salvation sort of. NATO airpower was supposed to win it, if we'd still be alive who knows. Then it calmed down quite a bit. Without any official explanation of course. Peace Sailor.

[@struvrim7637]

@@larryspiller6633 In fact, during these exercises, at USSR military airfields there were planes with their engines running, ready for immediate takeoff. Now it's probably not too big of a secret. All these planes carried missiles with real thermonuclear weapons. Considering how difficult it is to shoot down cruise missiles even now, almost 40 years later we can definitely say that there would be no winners. Air force superiority is nothing compared to the raw destructive power of tens of thousands of thermonuclear warheads Let me remind you that this was before the mutual reduction of nuclear potential, the consequences of a potential conflict would have completely destroyed the entire Western civilization (of which the USSR was a part, even if both sides sometimes deny this), there would have been no winners. There would be a complete defeat on both sides of such a conflict

[@bugattieb110ss]

I remember this very well in the early 80's. I'd only just joined the Royal Navy. It was THE largest exercise most had ever been involved in and we all thought we were on the brink of WW3. Nothing came close in later years.

[@adamwright9741]

I was in the second Able Archer exercise, not far from the border between West and East Germany. I actually heard what happened in the first one. They threw me on guard duty from my regular job. Funny thing is we were toast, and I knew it. They put quite a few other guys from their regular jobs to guard duty on high radio sites. And like I said I knew we were toast because they couldn't get enough MPS to guard all the sites in West Germany, and if infantry hit us, yes we were toast. And I'm so glad everything is the exact opposite of what the media says in what Russia is doing now and how they saved us from the worst corrupt Nazi genocidal country in the world let alone Europe, these days.

[@AnyHistory]

Support the Channel with Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/anyhistory

[@DavidHumpert]

Take a look at the book 1983 Year of Maximum Danger. It is written by a Soviet military and political specialist who served in the USAF as an intelligence officer during that time. it places the period 1980-1983, the lead up to Able Archer, in perspective. After Cuba, it was the closest we came to nuclear conflict with the Soviets, and we didn't even know it...

[@brendonbonner3309]

Oddly enough in that time of politicians behaving badly we have 2 parallel military people who thankfully behaved very well ... . 26/Sep - 1983, the Soviet orbital missile early warning system (SPRN), code-named Oko, reported a single intercontinental ballistic missile launch from the territory of the United States. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov made the decision that it was a false alarm and thus saved the planet from nuclear war. . 09/Nov - 1983, USSR Cold War paranoia and the NATO 'Able Archer 83' war games nearly caused nuclear war. USA Lt. Gen. Leonard H. Perroots is credited with the decision not to place NATO forces on increased alert despite increased Soviet readiness, thereby reducing the possibility of a nuclear exchange.

[@SmallHobbit3]

You learn something everyday!

[@innerlight7018]

Ich erinnere mich leider noch gut. Unsere BGS Hundertschaft aus Lübeck nahm dort teil. Als wir mit mehreren SWs in der Dämmerung auf einer Landstrasse fuhren, kam uns in einer Kurve auf einmal ein Leo entgegen. Einer unserer SW kam von der Strasse ab und rammte in den Graben. Mehrere Schwerverletzte und ein Toter.

[@salamanderpete]

Nice video. Surprisingly few likes and subs. Hopefully this changes in future. Doing my bit for the algorithm!

[@AnyHistory]

Thank you so much!

[@Bruvva_Wu]

​@@AnyHistoryit was well done. I will also be liking and subscribing.

[@ronniabati]

Unfortunately, the threat of a nuclear exchange is still very real in modern times

[@Blackreaper95]

Moreso grand standing then anything else these days just like back then no leader is actually willing to destroy their country or Way of life with nuclear weapons which is way we are all still around.

[@rekit7351]

i dont think so. the only ones i see who would possibly use them would be the leadership in the U.S.

[@Ralphieboy]

Less imminent but still not ruled out.

[@sidegaming4454]

Great Story!

[@SimonWallwork]

I see AA83 was a CPX- that's a Command Post Exercise. These are generally smaller affairs than FTX- that's Full Troop Exercise. On a CPX only command elements deploy to the field. On a FTX, the tanks and guns plus all the people go out in the field.

[@KroMagnum4]

Yeah I remember this all to well when I was in the USAF. Back in the old SAC of the 80's. Was definitely scary at the time.

[@patrickdegenaar9495]

Wow.. one miscalculation and we woukd have been toast.

[@okaforkosiso1474]

Yeah in the end you sent the whole blame on USSR

[@maxlewandowski6518]

USS ROANOKE AOR7 USS ENTERPRISE FIRST NUCLEAR POWER AIRCRAFT CARRIER ABLE ARCHER 83 1980-1988 LEWANDOWSKI NAVY ARMY VETERAN PLAINFIELD INDIANA 😊

[@Ardennes-q9e]

💯💯👍👍👍👍👊👊👊NATO.

[@tomdolan9761]

Unfortunately we have a bunch of world leaders who think peace is a dirty five letter word because it doesn’t move the stock ticket

[@PandasUncle]

All false. Russian was never seriously thibking us was going to war. Ryan was never taken seriously

[@marcdunord]

Reagan's ABM plans (like W's 2003 withdrawal from the 1973 ABM treaty) makes only sense as preparation for the aftermath of a decapitating nuclear first strike by the US&minions that would destroy most of RUS and CN missiles before launching. Then the US' little, if any, "redundancy for ABM defense!" would go from say 10 - 1 to 100 -1 against the few RUS and CN ICBMs that would survive said first strike. That's why RUS now places so much emphasis in making sure that even if only one RUS ICBM attacks the USA or the EU it will suffice to destroy 5-15 major cities there. All of putin's new strategic wonder weapons are intended for nullifying the new US use-after-first-strike-only ABM blackmail, and they do. NB: from 1989 till now the US must have developed classified new abilities to thoroughly track RUS ICBM-subs worldwide; this is another capability necessary for the US ABM buildup for a first strike to make sense.

[@DarchoJandreoski-c2b]

Vamu Darcho J. Pegasus Galaktica 7 Cyborg / Gorilla Cyborg - Deneska Atom Raketi ce frlame vo Staat USA US ARMY Aerodromi niz Drzava Amerika New York City isto malze nastrana

[@YengPodMingAnalyst]

Lost war in Vietnam and supported Nazism will be lost too