Ambinder - The Brink

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.

Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.

We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.

Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

Copyright 2018 by Marc Ambinder

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition July 2018

SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Jacket design by Keith Hayes

Jacket photographs: reagan by Ullstein Bild/Getty Images;

Cloud by H. Armstrong Roberts/Classicstock/Getty Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-4767-6037-7

ISBN 978-1-4767-6039-1 (ebook)

For Michael

I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if, if were the generation thats going to see that come about.

RONALD REAGAN, OCTOBER 28, 1983

If word ever came, that they had pushed the button, yes, we would have had to set all of ours in motion.

RONALD REAGAN, 1989

God almighty, [Reagan] can bring the world damn near to an end.

ADMIRAL WILLIAM CROWE, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

We listened to the hourly circuit verification signal and believed we could recognize a release order. Under these conditions when we detected NATO actually preparing to launch, we would want to pre-empt your launch with our own nuclear strikes.

GENERAL-LIEUTENANT GELII VIKTOROVICH BATENIN, FIRST DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE SOVIET GENERAL STAFF

All words in quotations come directly from a sources mouth, or from a sources direct and contemporaneous recounting of what he or she said, or from an unchallenged or verified document or secondary source attributing those words to someone. I have italicized quotations when I could not independently verify the wording or when sources told me they could not recall exactly what was said.

I interviewed more than one hundred people for this book, including eight direct participants in Able Archer 83 and a dozen former intelligence officials with direct knowledge of secret programs and spy craft during this period. Many agreed to share their experiences on the record.

UNITED STATES

President Ronald Reagan

Vice President George H. W. Bush

General Alexander Haig: Secretary of State, 19811982

George Shultz, Secretary of State, 19821988

Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, 19811988

William Casey, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 19811987

General Richard Ellis, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, 19771981

General Bernard Rogers, Supreme Commander Allied Forces, Europe, 19791987

General Bennie Davis, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, 19811985

General John Jack Vessey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 19821985

Judge William P. Clark, National Security Advisor, 19821983

Robert Bud McFarlane, National Security Advisor, 19831985

Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, 19811987

Jack Matlock, Senior Director for European and Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, 19831987

Admiral John Poindexter, Deputy National Security Advisor, 19831985

Oliver North, Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council, 19811986

Thomas Reed, Special Assistant to the President, former director of the National Reconnaissance Office and father of Project Pegasus, 19821987

Colonel William Odom, Military Assistant to the National Security Advisor, 19781981

Robert Gates, Deputy Director of Intelligence, CIA, 19811986

Fritz M. Ermarth, senior CIA analyst selected to write a Special National Intelligence Estimate (SNIE) on the Soviet war threat in 1984

David McManis, the CIAs national intelligence officer for warning

Brigadier General Leonard Perroots, senior air force intelligence officer, US Army Europe, 19831984

THE SOVIETS (AND FRIENDS)

Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary, 19661982

Yuri Andropov, General Secretary, 19821984

Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary, 19841985

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary, 19851991

Viktor Chebrikov, KGB Chairman

Vladimir Kryuchkov, KGB Deputy Chairman

Erich Mielke, director of the East German Intelligence Service (Stasi)

Markus Wolf, chief of foreign intelligence, Stasi

Horst Mnnchen, Stasi SIGINT chief

Nikolai Ogarkov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Chief of the General Staff

Dmitriy Ustinov, Minister of Defense (died 1984)

Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the United States

V. K. Bondarenko, captain of the Soviet Victory II attack submarine

Gennadi Osipovich, Soviet air defense fighter pilot

Stanislaw Petrov, deputy director for combat algorithms at the Russian Ground Command and Control Center

THE SPIES

Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer based at Soviet embassy in London (spied for the SIS)

Arkady Guk, the KGB rezident (chief officer) in London

John Scarlett, Oleg Gordievskys SIS case officer

Rainer Rupp, a senior NATO intelligence officer (spied for the Stasi)

Jeffrey Carney, a US Air Force intelligence officer who worked with the National Security Agency (spied for the Stasi)

Ryszard Kukliski, Colonel Polish Peoples Army (spied for the CIA)

SOLDIERS, SAILORS, CITIZENS

Captain Lee Trolan, commander of the 501st Army Artillery Detachment

Captain Gary Donato, Assistant Weapons Officer, USS Kamehameha

Gail Nelson, senior intelligence analyst, US Army Europe

Al Buckles, senior noncommissioned officer, US Strategic Air Command

Steven Schwalbe, analyst of Soviet forces, Defense Intelligence Agency

Jim Vink, CIA officer detailed to DMSPA

Suzanne Massie, author and Soviet culture analyst

Nina Tumarkin, academic and Soviet culture expert

C3 (command, control, and communications) : the circulatory system for the transmission and execution of nuclear war orders.

CINC : Commander in Chief.