and Other

Every day at work I listen to at least 3 hours of NPR programming.

I always learn something fascinating. Today I heard mention of Operation Able Archer, which was a NATO military practice operation in 1983. I got some details from the interview on Fresh Air, then came home and read more about it on-line

It was some unbelievably scary reading. I'd advise anyone who doesn't know about it to check it out.

Here's a (very) quick recap:

1) Able Archer was a major north Atlantic military maneuver that seems to have been a test of our (NATO, primarily U.S.) first strike nuclear abilities.

2) The Soviet Union believed we may use the war games as a ruse to actually launch a first strike.

3) The Soviets acted according to their beliefs and we seem to have come awfully close to a nuclear war.]

I'm not sure why the Soviets would have thought that, unless it had something to do with our president calling them an evil empire, moving 1st strike weapons into Europe, (which was actually a step initiated by Carter) and doing everything possible to rattle the Russians.

Honestly, though I've always been a Reagan-basher, and though the impression I got from a lot of my research was that the scare was largely the fault of his administration, I came away from my reading with a higher opinion of him.

He seems to have made some fairly large blunders in his early handling of the Cold War, but recognized it and adjusted accordingly. During the 2nd term of his administration he held a hard line, as he did in the 1st half, but it seems to have become much more nuanced, which is a lesson it took the current president 3 1/2 years longer to learn- if he's learned it yet.