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.
