Are we facing another ABLE ARCHER?
Military exercise leading to the edge of atomic total destruction
written by Susanne Härpfer
Soviet forces launched chemical attacks. NATO signaled: „The nuclear destruction of one city in the hope of total nuclear war.“
Sounds as if it were news from
today – or mere fiction. None of this. Able Archer tells the true story of NATO exercises in 1983 that…mehrAre we facing another ABLE ARCHER?
Military exercise leading to the edge of atomic total destruction
written by Susanne Härpfer
Soviet forces launched chemical attacks. NATO signaled: „The nuclear destruction of one city in the hope of total nuclear war.“
Sounds as if it were news from today – or mere fiction. None of this. Able Archer tells the true story of NATO exercises in 1983 that almost triggered off the above described destruction of the world.
The authors have been working with the US National Security Archive and obtained the formerly highly classified documents under FOIA request.
These documents reveal: „On the morning of November 8 NATO requested permission from its members for „initial limited use of nuclear weapons against pre-selected fixed targets“ on the morning of November 9. The Western capitals granted NATO permission to destroy Eastern European cities with nuclear attacks.
But this did not stop the Warsaw Pact. As a result the next day the leader of NATO´S military, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) requested a „follow-on use of nuclear weapons.“ Washington – and the other capitals – approved this request within twenty-four hours, and on November 11 the follow-on attack was executed. A full scale nuclear war had broken out.
Then, with nothing left to destroy, Able Archer 83, a NATO war-gaming exercise designed to practise the release of nuclear weapons during wartime conditions, came to an end.“
This apocalyptic script is not a Roland Emmerich movie, nor Putin´s prosa, but real life exercise of NATO troops in Germany and Europe.
The Washington based authors published the former top secret documents in order to inform the world what NATO exercises do really mean and how the huge manouvre with airlifting 19 000 troops from the US to Europe almost triggered off what was described: total nuclear destruction of earth.
The exercise was perceived as so realistic that the Sovietunion planned for counter strike which – with the given trigger setting being classified – would have been regard as nuclear first use by the Soviet Union.
The 340 pages show how dangerous military exercises can be for the world, by becoming reality.
It is the vivid description of „the secret history of the NATO exercise that almost triggered nuclear war“ that lets readers ask: are we currently facing a second Able Archer these days?
Do the events connected with war in Ukraine belong to such a global exercise, to a second Able Archer?
The names might have changed. The US announced the „Global Thunder“ - including nuclear strikes and all of this 20 km in front of Russian coastline, happening only few months befor Russia invaded Ukraine.
Followed by NATO carrying out an exercise on an annual base that includes exactly the alleged complete nuclear destruction: stead fast noon.
In 1983 the Soviet Union could not distinguish between the military exercise Able Archer and the real world. And today?