It would make for an interesting conspiracy theory for a T2K scenario. :eek:

That's why I like to know more. Do you know anything on the storage procedures. For Turkey, I think I have read that 1/3 of the nukes stationed in Turkey were to be used by the Turkish air force.

Where they stored with these directly used by US? Under US guard or Turkish guard?...

All NUKES on NATO soil, except for France and UK, were under custodial care of the US. The weapons belonged to the US. Access to them was controlled by the US. A team of custodians were at each storage site. IIRC in Germany, the sites where 'German' Nukes were stored were guarded by the BW. At the US APS they were guarded by a company of MP (Security). I think the nukes in Turkey were under USAF control, perhaps some Turkish guards???, but the release was US.

Same way in other places around the world where the US had nuclear weapons for use by host nations in last ditch operations. [or so I have been told ;)]

"A guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world".
 

Nice work, Mo. Hmmmm… Always looking fort he minimum excuse to send civilization to hell? :D

Talking about “hot spots” in the cold war period: Vasili Arkhipov

And, some of the other NATO air forces had the capability to deliver those US nukes from their aircraft.

Cold Sweat
 

I just finished watching Soviet War Scare 1983 on the History Channel (my program guide said it originally aired in 2010) and wow, did it bring back a lot of thoughts and emotions for me. I'm almost shaking as I write this.

I was 9 in '83, and full of fear- strangers, drugs, divorce, ghosts, bees, and most of all, nuclear war. I had no idea how close we came to that last one. The show did a good job of explaining how a whole bunch of incidents from that year- most of which I remember knowing about- were tied together in a web of suspicion and tension that nearly led to a strategic Soviet nuclear strike on the west.

I only recently heard anything about Able Archer. I had no cluse that a Soviet launch-warning sattelite reported five false positive American ICBM launches in early '83. The other stuff I knew about but, although worrisome at the time, seemed more or less unrelated to a 9-year-old kid. How wrong I was.

• The deployment of Pershing IIs in W. Germany- with a 12 minute launch to impact time, the PII had the Soviets worried about a decapitation strike
  
• The Soviet shoot-down of a S. Korean 747- the Soviets thought Reagan would use this as a pretext to launch a first strike
  
• The Beirut Marine barracks bombing- increased security at U.S. military bases worldwide was interpreted as preparation for war
  
• The Grenada invasion- led to increased encrypted signals between Thatcher (the Brits weren't happy that the U.S. went into Grenada without consulting them first) and Reagan, which the Soviets suspected to be coordination of a NATO first-strike.

Thank God for Topaz, the Soviet [German] agent in NATO whose reports encouraged restraint.

This has probably all been discussed here already, but I just had to get it out.

You know what really sucks? In 1983 I was an MS 1 (Freshman) in ROTC as UTSA, and we didn't hear a damn thing about Able Archer. Nothing. Wasn't in the papers, magazines, mil reports...I'll bet our instructors and the MS 4s knew, but us plebes were mushrooms!

I graduated high school in '83, I was too stoned most of that year to remember much. I remember the Korean plane getting shot down and the Beruit bombing and Grenada, but just vaguely.

Did no one advise the USSR we were going to be doing this exercise? Seems to me that would have been a good idea.

They thought it was a cover for a real attack. Paranoia will destroy ya.

And (according to the show) it was just a staff excercise- a bunch of NATO brass and signals units only, no field manouvers. I was imagining something more concrete, like Reforger. The Soviets were listening in and interpreting the game turns as actual orders.

Topaz is one of those agents that will never ever get anything positive happening for him because he was caught. Yet those reports he sent out did manage to keep a lid on things - so I guess the world owes him a beer or two.

Mere Child!!!

My $0.02

Mike