Operation Able Archer

I’ve only just watched a recording I made of a weekend Channel Four programme about Operation Able Archer in 1983.
It was the closest that we came to World War Three with the exception of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and I confess that I had never heard of it. Fundamentally the crisis came down to a total lack of understanding of NATO/US intentions by the then USSR.
The Cold War was one of the maddest periods of human history when the stakes in terms of potential loss of life were never higher. Let us hope that we never see its like again and that we are now a world that has better communication and understanding.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

One Comment

  • Tom Freeman
    January 10th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    Yes, I didn’t know anything about this event until I saw the TV listing for it. A very interesting programme (although the narrator pronouncing ‘nucular’ did bug me after a while).
    Goes to show the importance of staying on good terms with your enemies…