On June 8, 1982, In a speech to the British Parliament, Reagan declared that the United States would promote Western democratic values around the world and "throw Marxism-Leninism into the garbage of history." The Soviet Union also launched a fierce attack on Reagan, openly declaring Reagan a "madman" and even comparing it to Hitler. By 1983, the Soviets' tense nerves were strained to the extreme. During this period, the Soviet Navy's strategic nuclear submarines re-entered the sea after only 7 days of rest after returning to the sea, and the Soviet strategic nuclear submarines patrolling the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans were often maintained at 12 to 13. It's a sword-rattling.
Since the mid-to-late 1970s, U.S. and NATO military exercises have grown in scale and frequency, and have been located closer to the Soviet border, with a distinctly provocative nature. Programs for all-out and "limited" war against the Warsaw Pact countries, including some of the use of nuclear weapons, are increasingly being tested in exercises. The Soviets believed that the United States was actively preparing for war that would push humanity to the brink of disaster. The Soviet Union was extremely sensitive to the imminent deployment of pershing 2 missiles by the United States in Europe.
Because the range of this high-precision missile is enough to cover the intercontinental missile silos in Moscow and the western territory of the Soviet Union, the tactical missile is actually a strategic missile for the Soviet Union, which will break the balance of strategic power between the Soviet Union and the United States. Then Soviet Defense Minister Ustinov pointed out that the main purpose of the United States in the Deployment of pershing 2 missiles in the Federal Republic of Germany was to launch a "pre-emptive" nuclear strike and destroy the Soviet Union's intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Soviet Union also noted that the United States deployed medium-range missiles in Western Europe not to protect the safety of Europeans, but to mitigate the possibility of nuclear retaliation when it struck the Soviet Union.
On March 8, 1983, President Reagan declared the Soviet Union an "evil empire" in a public speech, the "root cause of all turmoil" in the world. On March 23, Reagan delivered a televised speech on the famous "Strategic Defense Program," the "Star Wars" program. The Soviet Union reacted strongly to this, and only 3 days later, Andropov, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, pointed out in response to a reporter's question: "The 'strategic defense' plan is to develop and improve the strategic offensive force of the United States at full speed in accordance with the very clear policy of adding potential to the first strike, in an attempt to use anti-missile defense to gain the ability to destroy the corresponding strategic weapons of other countries, that is, to deprive other countries of the ability to give a counterattack, with the aim of disarming the Soviet Union in the face of the nuclear threat of the United States." ”
On June 1, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an opinion piece pointing out that it was a fantasy that the United States planned to paralyze the Soviet Union's intercontinental missiles and deprive the Soviet Union of the ability to fight back. If necessary, the Soviet Union will take all necessary measures to make this Plan of the United States never material. On September 1, 1983, Korean Air Flight 007, the Boeing 747, "yawed" 900 kilometers deep into the sensitive military areas of the Soviet Union, and was shot down, killing all 269 passengers on board. This incident reflected the high tension of the Soviet military at that time.
The United States immediately severely condemned the Soviet Union, Reagan said that "the Soviet Union is not worthy of being a member of the civilized family", the Soviet Union hit back, calling Reagan's statement "dirty words mixed with neurotic preaching", announcing that the Soviet Union would no longer deal with Reagan. On October 25, the United States invaded Grenada, overthrowing the communist regime fostered by the Soviet Union and Cuba. The Soviets believed that the United States was "killing chickens and making an example" and that the international political situation was already extremely dangerous and was on the verge of destruction.
In this context, NATO did one of the most dangerous things, pushing the world once again to the brink of a nuclear war — the "Good Shooter 83" nuclear war exercise, which was held on an unprecedented scale (more than 300,000 military and logisticians) from November 2 to 11, 1983, simulating a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. The exercise is not only the largest in scale, but also in the top specifications. The "Good Shooter 83" program invited the highest-ranking officials of NATO and its allies to participate in the simulated command, including US President Reagan, Vice President Bush, Defense Secretary Weinberg, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and West German Prime Minister Kohl (later, to avoid overstimulating the Soviet Union, Reagan and Bush withdrew). This makes the "actual combat" of "Excellent Shooter 83" very strong.
By this time, the Soviet Union was at its height and ready to launch a "pre-emptive" nuclear retaliation. On November 6, Romanov, a member of the Politburo of the CPSU, said at a meeting to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution: "Perhaps there has not been a period since the Second World War in the world that has been as tense as it is at present... At present, the international situation has tended to be white-hot, completely white-hot. "Some argue that this crisis of 1983 even surpassed the Cuban Missile incident of 1962 and was the closest human race ever came to the brink of a nuclear war.
The Soviet Union judged at the time that the United States was likely to use the exercises as a cover in an attempt to launch the first strike against the Soviet Union. Soviet intelligence even analyzed that the United States had secretly shipped the "Pershing 2" missile to Europe, and the "Excellent Shooter 83" exercise did have the content of simulating the launch of the "Pershing 2" missile. Later, the U.S. Secretary of Defense also admitted that under the circumstances at that time, it was indeed difficult to distinguish between military exercises and real offenses.
Between November 5 and 9, the Soviet KGB sent secret telegrams to the intelligence agencies stationed at NATO, asking them to pay close attention to the alert levels of U.S. military bases, because once the alert level was raised, it meant that NATO's first strike against the Soviet Union would begin immediately. In addition, the Soviet Union had already detected that NATO's nuclear forces were on the highest level of alert, which meant that they could launch attacks within hours; just before and after the exercise, NATO adopted a new, extremely difficult to decipher the format of the cable, and the frequency of communication between the United States and Britain rose sharply, which was a prelude to the outbreak of war.
So why didn't the Soviet Union finally press the nuclear button? Because a large number of relevant archival materials have not been declassified, the mystery cannot be revealed. It may be related to the extreme instability of the soviet top leadership at that time. After all, it is unimaginable to carry out a brutal and tragic nuclear war without a strong leadership core. Soon, just 8 years later, at the end of 1991, the Red Empire, although not destroyed by nuclear war, was washed away by the torrents of history. The high-intensity bipolar confrontation that has lasted for nearly half a century has come to an abrupt end, and the world has entered an era of superpowers and powers.