1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink

1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink

by Taylor Downing
1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink

1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink

by Taylor Downing

Hardcover

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Overview

A riveting, real-life thriller about 1983—the year tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly brought the world to the point of nuclear Armageddon

The year 1983 was an extremely dangerous one—more dangerous than 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the United States, President Reagan vastly increased defense spending, described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," and launched the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative to shield the country from incoming missiles. Seeing all this, Yuri Andropov, the paranoid Soviet leader, became convinced that the US really meant to attack the Soviet Union and he put the KGB on high alert, looking for signs of an imminent nuclear attack.

When a Soviet plane shot down a Korean civilian jet, Reagan described it as "a crime against humanity." And Moscow grew increasingly concerned about America's language and behavior. Would they attack? The temperature rose fast. In November the West launched a wargame exercise, codenamed "Abel Archer," that looked to the Soviets like the real thing. With Andropov's finger inching ever closer to the nuclear button, the world was truly on the brink.

This is an extraordinary and largely unknown Cold War story of spies and double agents, of missiles being readied, intelligence failures, misunderstandings, and the panic of world leaders. With access to hundreds of astonishing new documents, Taylor Downing tells for the first time the gripping but true story of how near the world came to nuclear war in 1983.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780306921728
Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication date: 04/24/2018
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Taylor Downing is an award-winning television producer and the author of several "vivid and fast-paced" (Financial Times) history books, including Cold War, Spies in the Sky, and Churchill's War Lab. He has also written for the Observer, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, History Today, and Military History Monthly. Downing lives in London.

Table of Contents

List of Maps vii

Prologue 1

1 Reagan 19

2 Andropov 34

3 Reagan Rearms 51

4 Operation RYaN 68

5 Star Wars 90

6 Lack of Intelligence 106

7 Double Agents 118

8 PSYOPS 136

9 Shootdown 149

10 Outcry 169

11 False Alerts 189

12 Truck Bomb 202

13 Kremlin Paranoia 213

14 Able Archer 83 222

15 Combat Alert 234

16 Night 250

17 'Really Scary' 257

18 Spy Wars 277

19 Pay-off 293

20 Endgames 308

Epilogue 327

Acknowledgements 345

Bibliography 351

Key Sources 357

Notes 359

Index 377

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