The Cold War Analysis

The Cold War spanned from 1947-1991. This occurred between the United States and the Soviets because of an intense rivalry between the two powers. Neither wanted to truly go to war with the other country, but both wanted to prove their superiority. In 1983 the United States participated in a project, "Able Archer," that would basically test nuclear warfare. It included new coded messages, radio silences, and other new things. This led to the events that have recently been released to the public. On October 24, the National Security Archive published a report on the war scare of 1983 (the study went on in 1990). The results concluded hat the United States was on the brink of war with the Soviets without even knowing it. The leaders of the Soviet Unions intelligence agencies believed that "Able Archer," was part of a plan to strike them with nuclear warfare. They believed that we were preparing for first strike capability. The KGB (located in the Soviet Union, this was the largest spy organization in the world) sent instructions to monitor NATO (North Atlantic treaty Organization). It was concluded by the KGB, that if the United States got too far ahead of them in

The soviets used a computer system that would analyze thousands of strategic variables to find out what their strengths were in comparison to ours. The intelligence decided that if their strength dropped below forty percent in comparison to the United States, they would think about war with us. When they ran "Able Archer," it calculated forty-five percent. When looking into other military variables they discovered that their capabilities fell lower. Due to this information, the Soviets started rapidly preparing for war: they began cutting launch times, training forces for second strike nuclear missions, and even converting tractor factories into tank factories. Paranoia sank into Soviet