New Documents Reveal How a 1980s Nuclear War Scare Became a Full-Blown Crisis

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28. The really scary part:

I was there during Able Archer 83.

The Soviets, believing that the US had deployed a viable ABM defense, were going to fire everything they had at us to overwhelm it.

We came within less than a minute of a full-scale exchange. The doors were open on their Missile Silos and their bombers, loaded with Nukes were sitting on the runways with engines running, waiting for the order to take off.

Robert Hanssen, the FBI Soviet Mole had given the Continuation of Government Plan (COG) to the Soviets and they were watching the Bunker where Ronnie would go and their orders were to fire everything if he went in. He was on his way there when the Intel Community began getting Overhead and SIGINT that the Soviets were about to push the button. Ronnie was warned as he was ready to go in and the op was canceled.