How a war game brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster

How a war game brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster

Former classified documents show how close the Soviet Union came to launching an attack in 1983

[link to www.theguardian.com]

Able Archer, which involved 40,000 US and Nato troops moving across western Europe, co-ordinated by encrypted communications systems, imagined a scenario in which Blue Forces (Nato) defended its allies after Orange Forces (Warsaw Pact countries) sent troops into Yugoslavia following political unrest. The Orange Forces had quickly followed this up with invasions of Finland, Norway and eventually Greece. As the conflict had intensified, a conventional war had escalated into one involving chemical and nuclear weapons.