Fall 1983 was one of the most tense periods of the long Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. Moscow was angry and worried about Washington's military buildup and NATO's pending deployment of Pershing Ⅱ nuclear missiles. The US, for its part, was outraged at the USSR's recent destruction of KAL 007, a civilian Korean airliner that had wandered into Soviet airspace. In this charged atmosphere, the US and its NATO allies conducted a realistic command post exercise that involved the simulated release of nuclear weapons. Watching this war game closely with a variety of technical and spying techniques, the USSR apparently panicked.
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