Get It Now 1983: The World At The Brink Articulated By Taylor Downing Available Through Digital Edition
fascinating and detailed insight into a period of history that is slipping away from the near memory can this have happened nearlyyears ago surely not.
What once seemed so fixed and rigid, the cold war, the two superpowers around whom all orbited all seems so far away now.
This book looks at the period leading upto the historic upheaval that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union in the earlys, the change in leadership of the Soviet Union from the ailing Brezhnev to the soon to be ailing Andropov and the already ailing Chernenko old beyond their years frail men who held the soviet people in a deep freeze of totalitarian control.
The election of Ronald Reagan to the US presidency, the consummate actor and cold war warrior, talking tough on the Soviets and ramping up the anxiety about the prospects of a nuclear war.
This book looks at the spy craft undertaken by both sides, the deep paranoia within the Kremlin about the possibility of a first strike from the Americans and the lack of insight the Americans had about just how scared and weak the Soviet leadership really was.
The Soviets were able to promote spies within the western infrastructure , even within NATO high command, the west , apart from singular coups such as Oleg Gordievsky, less successful.
Despite their espionage success the soviet leadership convinced themselves that the Able Archer NATO exercise ofwas a front leading upto a preemptive nuclear strike and this book explains well how close an error at this point by either side may have led to a cataclysmic nuclear exchange.
Interesting / terrifying also in this book is the first detailed explanation of how the Soviets almost launched nuclear missiles in response to what was actually unusual high altitude cloud formations bouncing sunlight in such a way to mislead them.
It also explains how the actions of one commanding officer prevented disaster and how he was "rewarded" by the Soviets with dismissal and penury.
The book ends with a reflection of the ascension of Gorbachev to the leadership in the Kremlin , a youthful and energetic person compared to what had gone before and how this set in train the events ofand indeed the world today.
An interesting book , very well sourced but slightly too willing to grant the soviet leadership a pass for their behaviours whilst prosecuting NATO for their undertaking of Able Archer in, otherwise a compelling read
Excellent and scary in equal measure.
A readable but not rigourous telling of the risks run in, edging close to the brink of nuclear war, I usually don't correct the errors in my copies of books, but a couple called out for the pen:
The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff inwas General Vessey not Admiral Vessey.
No former Soviet state, except Russia, kept nuclear weapons after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, pHaving the technology to build nuclear power plants is NOT directly transferrable into the knowhow to produce nuclear weapons, It is NOT true "That very few countries, once they have started, have turned their back on developing nuclear weapons, . . " South Africa built and dismantled SIX nuclear weapons Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Taiwan, South Korea, Libya all have defunct nuclear weapons programs that they voluntarily ended.
Egypt, Syria, and Algeria all considered starting weapons programs, This doesn't count Ukraine, Kazhakstan, and Belarus, which all gave up the Soviet nukes they inherited, p
And "bitterly cold" in Geneva in November Not the years I was there, and the average high for midNovember is notably above freezing.
Certainly warmer than Moscow. And the location was "Villa" Fleur d'Eau, not "Maison" Fleur d'Eau,
Freedom of Navigation FoN exercises and electronic intelligence Elint reconnaissance missions are NOT "PSYOPS, " That a military operation has a psychological impact does NOT make it "PSYOPS" see Pearl Harbor, Battle of the Bulge, DDay all had huge psychological impacts on their targets, none were PSYOPS.
PSYOPS is also and IMO more accurately known as Military Information Support Operations, and is characterized by the use of propaganda words, not actions.
More background on the history of FoN's, Elints and civilian airliner "shootdowns" woudl have provided useful context,
Intel agents spies and analysts who tell their political bosses what they think their bosses want to hear are worthless, I am not saying it doesn't happen I am saying that such actors are worthless and worse than useless, "When the weak are frightened, that threatens no danger to the world, It is when the powerful are threatened that the world feels extremely nervous and rightly so, "
Year. A shootdown of a Korean airliner and an overly aggressive NATO exercise these were enough to imbibe the First Strike Paranoia in the Kremlin.
Taylor Downing in his well researched book ': The World at the Brink' brings to us the story of the events inwhich led the world standing at the brink of nuclear war TWICE.
The Cuban Missile crisis ofwas much covered by the international media and is widely known as the most dangerous year of the Cold War.
Little did we know about the crisis ofand the dramatic events it contained, which were no less in raising tensions as that in '.
The world rested at a 'hair trigger', It was the first time since WWII that the Soviet defense systems were put on such high alert,
A must read thriller!! In, Taylor Downing tells the gripping and frankly terrifying story of how NATO and the Warsaw Pact came within a hairs breadth of unleashing a global nuclear holocaust, a fact known, until the end of the Cold War itself and the consequent release of previously top secret documents, to very few people.
Downing does a terrific job in tracing the longterm factors that led to the inadvertent crisis of November, but is also excellent on the human stories: Reagan, the ailing Soviet leaders Andropov and Chernenko, and the new broom at the Kremlin, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as those actors with smaller roles in the unfolding global drama but whose actions or inaction helped save the world from nuclear catastrophe.
Taylor Downing is a renowned producer of historical documentaries and he brings both his historical training and storytelling abilities into full play in this compelling, pageturning book.
Mr Downing's books are always enjoyable, As a film maker and researcher he finds obscure historical details and presents them in a readable way for expert and novice alike,
This book is about one of the most deadly phases of the cold war, that most, including some intelligence analysts, did not know about.
This book is both scary and fascinating,the year which is more famous in Indian psyche for winning the Cricket World Cup, Well this very very engrossing book shows how near we had come to annihilation on account of escalating Cold war tensions,
Right from start, the book keeps one hooked on the pivotal year, Instead of starting with no background , it slowly builds it up keeping a very fine balance between the level of details and pace of storyline.
Unlike other books which might be prejudiced in their picturisation of opposite camp leaders, This paints a very honest , and if I might say a bit too rosy sketch of Gorbachev,
Insights into Operation RYaN give valuable lessons on how there can be gaps between the aspirations of the top management and the motivations of the foot soldiers.
All in all a very good book which should be read by any Cold war buff: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink by Taylor Downing is a detailed study of the Cold War's most dangerous moment.
Downing is a historian and writer whose best selling books include works on the First and Second World Wars and the Cold War, Taylor also writes on the history of film and television,
Almostof the American population was not alive or too young to remember the Cold War, For those alive during the period, many thought it would never end, or when it did end the world would end with it, Most Americans know we came close to nuclear war over the Cuban missile crisis, but for the most part, it seemed the Cold War was more political or a war where most of the dying was done by proxy states.
Of course, there was the Korean War, Vietnam, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, I was in the Marines inand war concerns centered more on Latin America than the Soviet Union,was perhaps the most dangerous year for mankind,
Downing begins by tracing the Cold War back to its origins and the uneasy alliance of the US and USSR during World War II.
Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev are used to show the Soviet mindset and policy changes leading up to thes, A brief biography of Reagan is also included on the American side, The Brezhnev seemed like the career bureaucrat compared to Stalin he was stable, The gulag system was drastically reduced for the most part under Khrushchev, Brezhnev, for his part, increased and modernized the Soviet military at the expense of consumer goods, The Soviet gas pipeline to Europe would have increased hard currency but the effort was blocked by the US, At Brezhnev's death, a new leader was selected, Andropov was selected over the favored Chernenko,
Reagan built up the US military after the embarrassment in Vietnam and the hostage rescue attempt in Iran, America was on the way to aship navy to meet the Soviet Union threat, The BB and MX missile system were to come online, Reagan publicized the Strategic Defense Initiative, Star Wars, and added to his warlike image in the Soviet Union, The selection of Yuri Andropov came as a shock to many, Andropov, although his personal life was unknown in the West, was the head of the KGB, That was a scary proposition for the US, He would be as antiAmerican as Reagan was antiCommunist,
Reagan managed to build the US military without deep paranoia, He knew that America could outspend the Soviet Union and that an arms race would destroy the Soviet Union, The perception of the leaders did not match the reality of the situation, Andropov was very paranoid as well as Soviet leadership, Soviet Embassies in the west were told to report anything that might be a hint of war planning including counting the number of lights on in buildings.
The Soviets believed war, an invasion from the West was only a matter of time, There were missile scares on both sides, but cooler heads prevailed, Then there was the downing of Korean Airby a Soviet fighter, Most of the American leadership believed it was intentional, The US Air Force review believed it was a case of mistaken identity but was the minority opinion by far,
Much of Korean Airis still a mystery, How and why the plane was so grossly off course are unknown, Radio checks from the plane describe the flight as on course, however, it drifted into restricted Soviet airspace, Andropov repeated a fabricated story, The US insisted it was intentional, The actual events still are unknown, Star Wars put the Soviets on edge, Korean Air put the US on edge, Neither leadership wanted conflict. Paranoia grew faster on the Soviet side, The isolation from the real world of the Soviet leadership left them to paint a darker
picture, Soviet Ambassadors and residents in Western embassies had a much clearer picture but had a difficult time making their leadership believe,
The crucial point came in, NATO was running a War Game, Able Archer ', the Soviets were aware of the yearly maneuvers, Able Archer usually, as well, as inwas played out as a reaction to an escalating invasion of the Soviet Union ending with the simulated nuclear attack.
This year was different from other years in that the usual codes were changed, there were periods of radio silence, and participation from heads of states.
Soviet intelligence saw these changes as ominous The added realism had more than the intended effect, The Soviets saw this as an actual invasion and readied its nuclear arsenal believing that a preemptive strike was underway, Soviet fighters were put on "strip alert", seconds from launching, Andropov and other Soviet leaders were readying to authorize launch codes, Novemberth the exercise ended and NATO went back to business as usual without any knowledge of the responses it caused, Reagan would later say, "I don't see how they could believe thatbut its something to think about, "
Think he did, Reagan slowly turned from more saber rattling and evil empire talk, His campaign incentered on "Morning in America" and not military buildups, He would come to work on arms reductions with the Soviets, Andropov barely lived intoand was replaced by Chernenko who lasted thirteen months, He was replaced by Gorbachev a man both Thatcher and Reagan could work with, The rest is history.
is an interesting history with newly unclassified materials adds to the known events of the Cold War, It adds the arms race did to leaders and how close a misunderstanding could turn to the end of the world, Reagan was never weak on defense, but he did see what could easily happen and almost did happen, Living under assured mutual destruction was not the way for mankind to progress, An excellent read. .