1983
The World at the Brink
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'A carefully researched and hugely readable account of the build-up to war, the momentum inexorably growing as he assembles each part of the jigsaw. Indeed, his narrative is so persuasive that by the time you are about two- thirds through, it takes some effort to remind yourself that the Third World War never happened' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
1983 was a supremely dangerous year - even more dangerous than 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the US, President Reagan massively increased defence spending, described the Soviet Union as an 'evil empire' and announced his 'Star Wars' programme, calling for a shield in space to defend the US from incoming missiles.
Yuri Andropov, the paranoid Soviet leader, saw all this as signs of American aggression and convinced himself that the US really meant to attack the Soviet Union. He put the KGB on alert to look for signs of an imminent nuclear attack. When a Soviet fighter jet shot down Korean Air Lines flight KAL 007 after straying off course over a sensitive Soviet military area, President Reagan described it as a 'terrorist act' and 'a crime against humanity'. The temperature was rising fast.
Then at the height of the tension, NATO began a war game called Able Archer 83. In this exercise, NATO requested permission to use the codes to launch nuclear weapons. The nervous Soviets convinced themselves this was no exercise but the real thing.
This is an extraordinary and largely unknown Cold War story of spies and double agents, of missiles being readied, of intelligence failures, misunderstandings and the panic of world leaders. With access to hundreds of extraordinary new documents just released in the US, Taylor Downing is able to tell for the first time the gripping but true story of how near the world came to the brink of nuclear war in 1983.
1983: The World at the Brink is a real-life thriller.
Customer Reviews
Chilling rather than chillin’
The author is a British historian (Double First from Cambridge) and television producer with more 300 TV documentaries under his belt, including several long-running, award-winning series. He also writes popular history books, mostly related to world wars of the 20th century (1, 2 and Cold).
1983 was feast for lovers of Bond films involving nuclear weapons, and who isn’t? In Octopussy, Roger Moore foils a Soviet general’s attempt to launch a nuclear first strike against the West, while in Never Say Never Again, a resuscitated Sean Connery recovers nuclear weapons stolen by SPECTRE and saves the world. NSNA was a remake of Thunderball by a dude named Irvin Kershner. As far as I can tell, Kershner’s principal aim was to piss long term Bond producer Cubby Broccoli off. The title is a riff on what the now 52-year-old Connery was supposed to have said after Diamond Are Forever wrapped 12 years earlier. Oh for the days where Roger Moore was seen as “the young guy.” But I digress.
1983 was also the year, one of them anyway, that Ronnie Raygun touted the Strategic Defence Initiative (“Stars Wars”) while pushing US defence (make that defense) spending above 6% of GDP. The Russians went all bolshie (what else?), acted as if they didn’t care, and strutted around promising end-of-days retribution. In fact, they were sh*tting themselves. When they got a little trigger happy with an off-course Korean Air 747 in September, Ronnie called it a 'a crime against humanity,” which may or may not be the first recorded use of that particular phrase, but definitely made matters worse. Long story short, a NATO military exercise, make that simulation, in early November involving simulated use of simulated nuclear weapons (remember the Band-Aid ads with little captions that said simulated wound?) got a little too real for an eavesdropping Andropov as he languished in a secret clinic receiving dialysis and sundry other sorts of life support. (Never, rather than never say never, encapsulated the attitude of Soviet leaders to resignation.) Andy spent a sleepless night with his finger on the button, but didn’t push it. The rest of us, including the members of the Pakistan and Australian cricket teams preparing for the First Test in Perth as well as everyone in the White House, had no idea how close we came to being vaporised. If they’d dialysed Andropov overnight not during the day, we might have been. (My speculation, not Mr Downing’s).
Bottom line: Chillingly real, because it is.
Footnote: I did the college of physicians exam in 1983, a fact as irrelevant to me today as it undoubtedly is to you, but kind of a big deal at the time.