175-578: Able Archer 83 was a military exercise conducted by NATO that took place in November 1983, as part of an annual exercise . It simulated a period of heightened nuclear tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact , leading to concerns that it could have been mistaken for a real attack by the Soviet Union . The exercise is considered by some to be one of the closest moments the world came to nuclear war during
350-478: A 30-minute alert. Former CIA analyst Peter Vincent Pry goes further, saying he suspects that the aircraft were merely the tip of the iceberg. He hypothesizes that in accordance with Soviet military procedure and history, ICBM silos, easily readied and difficult for the United States to detect the readiness status of, were also prepared for a launch. Lt. Gen. Leonard H. Perroots , the assistant chief of staff of
525-538: A Republican . In the 1964 U.S. presidential election , Reagan gave a speech for presidential contender Barry Goldwater that was eventually referred to as " A Time for Choosing ". Reagan argued that the Founding Fathers "knew that governments don't control things. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose" and that "We've been told increasingly that we must choose between left or right". Even though
700-471: A balanced budget . The United States borrowed heavily to cover newly spawned federal budget deficits. Reagan described the tripled debt the "greatest disappointment of his presidency". Jeffrey Frankel opined that the deficits were a major reason why Reagan's successor, Bush, reneged on his campaign promise by raising taxes through the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 . On March 30, 1981, Reagan
875-419: A defense contractor which was involved in the development of packet switching , used for ARPANET , and which developed the first computer modem in 1963. Military operations and training have included different scenarios a soldier might encounter with morals and different ethics. In one military operation soldiers are frequently asked to engage in combat, humanitarian, and stabilization roles. These increase
1050-544: A lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park . In 1928, Reagan began attending Eureka College at Nelle's approval on religious grounds. He was a mediocre student who participated in sports, drama, and campus politics. He became student body president and joined a student strike that resulted in the college president's resignation. Reagan was initiated as a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and served as president of
1225-434: A sand table , map, cloth model, or computer simulation exercise. These allow commanders to manipulate models through possible scenarios in military planning. This is also called warfare simulation, or in some instances a virtual battlefield , and in the past has been described as "wargames". Such examples of modern military wargames include DARWARS , a serious game developed since 2003 by DARPA with BBN Technologies ,
1400-625: A small government and a strong national defense , since he believed the United States was behind the Soviet Union militarily. Heading into 1980, his age became an issue among the press, and the United States was in a severe recession . In the primaries , Reagan unexpectedly lost the Iowa caucus to George H. W. Bush . Three days before the New Hampshire primary , the Reagan and Bush campaigns agreed to
1575-565: A "strapping young buck", which became an example of dog whistle politics , and attacked Ford for handing the Panama Canal to Panama's government while Ford implied that he would end Social Security . Then, in Illinois, he again criticized Ford's policy and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger . Losing the first five primaries prompted Reagan to desperately win North Carolina's by running
1750-538: A 2013 analysis by the National Security Archive : The Able Archer controversy has featured numerous descriptions of the exercise as so "routine" that it could not have alarmed the Soviet military and political leadership. Today's posting reveals multiple non-routine elements, including: a 170-flight, radio-silent air lift of 19,000 US soldiers to Europe, the shifting of commands from "Permanent War Headquarters to
1925-466: A NATO first strike, perhaps because of their proximity to, and understanding of, the West. Nevertheless, agents were ordered to report their observations, not their analysis, and this critical flaw in the Soviet intelligence system—coined by Gordievsky as the " intelligence cycle "—fed the fear of US nuclear aggression. Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev , who at the time was chief of the main operations directorate of
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#17328549567152100-488: A Pentagon briefing on nuclear war. During his first two years in office, he had refused to take part in such briefings, feeling it irrelevant to rehearse a nuclear apocalypse; finally, he consented to the Pentagon official requests. According to officials present, the briefing "chastened" Reagan. Weinberger said, "[Reagan] had a very deep revulsion to the whole idea of nuclear weapons ... These war games brought home to anybody
2275-476: A bill to create the holiday in 1983 after it passed both houses of Congress with veto-proof margins. In 1984, he signed legislation intended to impose fines for fair housing discrimination offenses. In March 1988, Reagan vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 , but Congress overrode his veto. He had argued that the bill unreasonably increased the federal government's power and undermined
2450-724: A bond between him and the American people that was never really broken". Later, Reagan came to believe that God had spared his life "for a chosen mission". Reagan appointed three Associate Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States : Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981, which fulfilled a campaign promise to name the first female justice to the Court, Antonin Scalia in 1986, and Anthony Kennedy in 1988. He also elevated William Rehnquist from Associate Justice to Chief Justice in 1986. The direction of
2625-488: A contingency, or general warfare. The use of military exercises and war games can be found to date back to as early as the early 19th century, wherein it was the officers of the Prussian Army who created the contemporary, tactical form of wargames that have since been more widely used and developed by other military conglomerations throughout the world. Non-tactical forms of wargames have existed for much longer, however, in
2800-494: A decision by the United States to launch a nuclear attack and to preempt it. On the night of September 26, 1983, the Soviet orbital missile early warning system (SPRN), code-named Oko , reported a single intercontinental ballistic missile launch from the territory of the United States. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov , who was on duty during the incident, dismissed the warning as a computer error when ground early warning radars did not detect any launches. Part of his reasoning
2975-502: A field exercise or fleet exercise, the two sides in the simulated battle are typically called "red" (simulating the enemy forces ) and "blue", to avoid naming a particular adversary. This naming convention originates with the inventors of the table-top war-game (the " Kriegsspiel "), the Prussian Georg von Reisswitz ; their army wore Prussian blue , so friendly forces were depicted by the color blue. Several different armed forces of
3150-491: A first strike ... Well, if that was the case, I was even more anxious to get a top Soviet leader in a room alone and try to convince him we had no designs on the Soviet Union and Russians had nothing to fear from us. Reagan eventually met Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in 1985 and at subsequent summits , leading to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and later treaties. When retiring from
3325-447: A genuine attack. In general, Reagan did not share the secretary's belief that cooler heads would prevail, writing: We had many contingency plans for responding to a nuclear attack. But everything would happen so fast that I wondered how much planning or reason could be applied in such a crisis ... Six minutes to decide how to respond to a blip on a radar scope and decide whether to unleash Armageddon ! How could anyone apply reason at
3500-421: A genuine danger of imminent conflict with the United States." Robert Gates , deputy director for Intelligence during Able Archer 83, has published thoughts on the exercise that dispute this conclusion: Information about the peculiar and remarkably skewed frame of mind of the Soviet leaders during those times that has emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union makes me think there is a good chance—with all of
3675-536: A genuine nuclear first strike . In response, the Soviet Union readied their nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert. The Soviet 4th Air Army began loading nuclear warheads onto combat planes in preparation for war. The apparent threat of nuclear war ended when U.S. Lieutenant General Leonard H. Perroots advised against responding to the Warsaw Pact military activity, which ended with
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#17328549567153850-535: A grassroots campaign and uniting with the Jesse Helms political machine that viciously attacked Ford. Reagan won an upset victory, convincing party delegates that Ford's nomination was no longer guaranteed. Reagan won subsequent victories in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Indiana with his attacks on social programs, opposition to forced busing , increased support from inclined voters of a declining George Wallace campaign for
4025-462: A limited acting range, was dissatisfied with the roles he received. As a result, Lew Wasserman renegotiated his contract with his studio, allowing him to also make films with Universal Pictures , Paramount Pictures , and RKO Pictures as a freelancer. With this, Reagan appeared in multiple western films , something that had been denied to him while working at Warner Bros. In 1952, he ended his relationship with Warner Bros., but went on to appear in
4200-409: A model of a real-world scenario. Additionally, mathematical modeling is used in the simulation of war games to provide a quantifiable method of deduction. However, it is rare that a war game is depended upon for quantitative results, and the use of war games is more often found in situations where qualitative factors of the simulated scenario are needed to be determined. The actual use of war games and
4375-456: A moral hazard because of the narrow scope of the alliance, while joint military exercises outside of an alliance (which are extremely rare) usually lead to conflict escalation. Exercises in the 20th and 21st centuries have often been identified by a unique code name , such as Cobra Gold , in the same manner as military contingency operations and combat operations like Operation Phantom Fury . Military exercises are sometimes used as cover for
4550-414: A move through all alert phases, from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1. While these phases were simulated, alarmist KGB agents mistakenly reported them as real. According to Soviet intelligence, NATO doctrine stated, " Operational readiness No. 1 is declared when there are obvious indications of preparation to begin military operations. It is considered that war is inevitable and may start at any moment." According to
4725-531: A new, unique format of coded communication, radio silences , and the participation of heads of government . This increase in realism, combined with tense relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, led some members of the Soviet Politburo and military to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse of war , obscuring preparations for
4900-498: A nuclear attack. These included actions by "A cadre of people associated with preparing and implementing decisions about RYaN, and also a group of people, including service and technical personnel ... those working in the operating services of installations connected with processing and implementing the decision about RYaN, and communication staff involved in the operation and interaction of these installations." Because Able Archer 83 simulated an actual release of nuclear weapons, it
5075-545: A nuclear war in the best way, with the hope of winning it". Despite the Soviet outcry over the Strategic Defense Initiative, the weapons plan that generated the most alarm among the Soviet Union's leadership during Able Archer 83 was NATO's planned deployment of intermediate-range Pershing II missiles in Western Europe. These missiles, deployed to counter Soviet RSD-10 Pioneer intermediate-range missiles on
5250-475: A nuclear war. Individuals like Gordon Barras, Raymond Garthoof, Beatrice Heuser, Mark Kramer, and Votjech Mastny challenge the narrative surrounding the incident that occurred in 1983. Academic scholars like Barras, Garthoof, Heuser, Kramer, and Mastny argue that Soviet individuals do not believe that tensions ever got to the point that the USSR prepared for a nuclear attack, nor were they anticipating an attack. In 2016,
5425-412: A one-on-one debate sponsored by The Telegraph at Nashua, New Hampshire , but hours before the debate, the Reagan campaign invited other candidates including Bob Dole , John B. Anderson , Howard Baker and Phil Crane . Debate moderator Jon Breen denied seats to the other candidates, asserting that The Telegraph would violate federal campaign contribution laws if it sponsored the debate and changed
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5600-504: A policy of rapprochement . The thoughts of Reagan and those around him provide important insight upon the nuclear scare and its subsequent ripples. On October 10, 1983, just over a month before Able Archer 83, President Reagan viewed a television film about Lawrence, Kansas , being destroyed by a nuclear attack titled The Day After . In his diary, the president wrote that the film "left me greatly depressed". Later in October, Reagan attended
5775-431: A positive take on free markets . Under GE vice president Lemuel Boulware , a staunch anti-communist, employees were encouraged to vote for business-friendly politicians. In 1961, Reagan adapted his speeches into another speech to criticize Medicare . In his view, its legislation would have meant "the end of individual freedom in the United States". In 1962, Reagan was dropped by GE, and he formally registered as
5950-468: A result, taxes on sales, banks, corporate profits, inheritances, liquor, and cigarettes jumped. Kevin Starr states, Reagan "gave Californians the biggest tax hike in their history—and got away with it". In the 1970 gubernatorial election , Unruh used Reagan's tax policy against him, saying it disproportionally favored the wealthy. Reagan countered that he was still committed to reducing property taxes. By 1973,
6125-692: A set of neoliberal reforms dubbed "Reaganomics", which included monetarism and supply-side economics . Reagan worked with the boll weevil Democrats to pass tax and budget legislation in a Congress led by Tip O'Neill , a liberal who strongly criticized Reaganomics. He lifted federal oil and gasoline price controls on January 28, 1981, and in August, he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 to dramatically lower federal income tax rates and require exemptions and brackets to be indexed for inflation starting in 1985. Amid growing concerns about
6300-536: A sitting member of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia and president of the anti-communist John Birch Society . From the start, the Reagan administration adopted a bellicose stance toward the Soviet Union, one that favored seriously constraining Soviet strategic and global military capabilities. The administration's focus on this objective resulted in the largest peacetime military buildup in
6475-614: A special election. Reagan's first tenure saw various labor–management disputes, the Hollywood blacklist , and the Taft–Hartley Act 's implementation. On April 10, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Reagan and he provided them with the names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers . During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, Reagan testified that some guild members were associated with
6650-501: A stand-alone event for headquarters staff only with heavy emphasis on simulated events. Historical names for the field exercise, or the full-scale rehearsal of military maneuvers as practice for warfare in the military services of the British Commonwealth include "schemes", while those of the military services United States are known as Field Training Exercises (FTX), or, in the case of naval forces, Fleet Exercises (FLEETEX). In
6825-542: A sudden nuclear attack on the Soviet Union". In his memoirs, Reagan, without specifically mentioning Able Archer 83, wrote of a 1983 realization: Three years had taught me something surprising about the Russians: Many people at the top of the Soviet hierarchy were genuinely afraid of America and Americans. Perhaps this shouldn't have surprised me, but it did ... During my first years in Washington , I think many of us in
7000-403: A time like that? According to McFarlane, the president responded with "genuine anxiety" in disbelief that a regular NATO exercise could have led to an armed attack. To the ailing Politburo —led from the deathbed of the terminally ill Andropov, a man with no firsthand knowledge of the United States, and the creator of Operation RYaN—it seemed "that the United States was preparing to launch ...
7175-650: A total of 53 films, his last being The Killers (1964). In April 1937, Reagan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve . He was assigned as a private in Des Moines' 322nd Cavalry Regiment and reassigned to second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps. He later became a part of the 323rd Cavalry Regiment in California. As relations between the United States and Japan worsened, Reagan
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7350-405: A vocal critic of President Carter in 1977. The Panama Canal Treaty 's signing, the 1979 oil crisis , and rise in the interest, inflation and unemployment rates helped set up his 1980 presidential campaign, which he announced on November 13, 1979 with an indictment of the federal government. His announcement stressed his fundamental principles of tax cuts to stimulate the economy and having both
7525-513: Is known as the Reagan era . Born and raised in Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and was hired the next year as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California where he became a well-known film actor. During his acting career, Reagan was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild twice, serving from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1960. In the 1950s, he became
7700-445: Is likely that the service and technical personnel mentioned in the memo were active in the exercise. More conspicuously, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl participated (though not concurrently) in the nuclear drill. United States President Reagan, Vice President George H. W. Bush , and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger also intended to participate. Robert McFarlane , who had assumed
7875-535: The 1948 presidential election , and Helen Gahagan Douglas for the U.S. Senate in 1950 . It was Reagan's belief that communism was a powerful backstage influence in Hollywood that led him to rally his friends against them. Reagan began shifting to the right when he supported the presidential campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960. When Reagan was contracted by General Electric (GE), he gave speeches to their employees. His speeches had
8050-485: The 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries , Reagan won the Republican Party's nomination and then a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election . In his first term as U.S. president, Reagan began implementing " Reaganomics ", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation . On the world stage, he escalated
8225-590: The 1986 bombing of Libya , the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras , and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev culminating in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty . Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the U.S. having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. At
8400-561: The AFL–CIO to fight right-to-work laws , and continued to speak out against racism when he was in Hollywood. In 1945, Reagan planned to lead an HICCASP anti-nuclear rally, but Warner Bros. prevented him from going. In 1946, he appeared in a radio program called Operation Terror to speak out against rising Ku Klux Klan activity in the country, citing the attacks as a "capably organized systematic campaign of fascist violence and intimidation and horror". Reagan also supported Harry S. Truman in
8575-877: The Barents , Norwegian , Black , and Baltic seas. US intelligence ships were regularly posted off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula . American bombers also flew directly towards Soviet airspace , peeling off at the last moment, sometimes several times per week. These near-penetrations were designed to test Soviet radar vulnerability as well as demonstrate US capabilities in a nuclear war. "It really got to them," said Dr. William Schneider , [former] undersecretary of state for military assistance and technology, who saw classified "after-action reports" that indicated U.S. flight activity. "They didn't know what it all meant. A squadron would fly straight at Soviet airspace, and other radars would light up and units would go on alert. Then at
8750-507: The Black Monday stock market crash, although the markets eventually recovered. By 1989, the BLS measured the unemployment rate at 5.3 percent. The inflation rate dropped from 12 percent during the 1980 election to under 5 percent in 1989. Likewise, the interest rate dropped from 15 percent to under 10 percent. Yet, not all shared equally in the economic recovery, and both economic inequality and
8925-551: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) measured the unemployment rate at 10.8 percent. Around the same time, economic activity began to rise until its end in 1990 , setting the record for the longest peacetime expansion. In 1983, the recession ended and Reagan nominated Volcker to a second term in fear of damaging confidence in the economic recovery. Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to succeed Volcker in 1987. Greenspan raised interest rates in another attempt to curb inflation, setting off
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#17328549567159100-710: The Cold War . The purpose of the exercise, like previous years, was to simulate a period of conflict escalation , culminating in the U.S. military attaining a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack . The five-day exercise, which involved NATO commands throughout Western Europe, was coordinated from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) headquarters in Casteau , Belgium. The 1983 exercise, which began on November 7, 1983, introduced several new elements not seen in previous years, including
9275-576: The Communist Party and that he was well-informed about a "jurisdictional strike". When asked if he was aware of communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild , he called information about the efforts "hearsay". Reagan resigned as SAG president November 10, 1952, but remained on the board; Walter Pidgeon succeeded him as president. The SAG fought with film producers for the right to receive residual payments , and on November 16, 1959,
9450-725: The Defense Intelligence Agency in January 1989, Perroots wrote a memorandum about the crisis to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board . In 1990 the board released a report commending Perroots for his actions and confirming the hazards of the exercise. After a 12-year legal battle, the National Security Archive succeeded in having the report declassified under the Freedom of Information Act request in 2015. In 2017,
9625-480: The Defense Intelligence Agency to discover why the United States was unable to maintain its economic competitiveness. According to program director Michael Sekora, their findings helped the country surpass the Soviets in terms of missile defense technology. Reagan sought to loosen federal regulation of economic activities, and he appointed key officials who shared this agenda. William Leuchtenburg writes that by 1986,
9800-730: The Democratic nomination , and repeated criticisms of Ford and Kissinger's policies, including détente . The result was a seesaw battle for the 1,130 delegates required for their party's nomination that neither would reach before the Kansas City convention in August and Ford replacing mentions of détente with Reagan's preferred phrase, " peace through strength ". Reagan took John Sears ' advice of choosing liberal Richard Schweiker as his running mate, hoping to pry loose of delegates from Pennsylvania and other states, and distract Ford. Instead, conservatives were left alienated, and Ford picked up
9975-532: The Employment Development Department published a report suggesting that the experiment that ran from 1971 to 1974 was unsuccessful. Reagan declined to run for the governorship in 1974 and it was won by Pat Brown's son, Jerry . Reagan's governorship, as professor Gary K. Clabaugh writes, saw public schools deteriorate due to his opposition to additional basic education funding. As for higher education, journalist William Trombley believed that
10150-644: The Kamchatka Peninsula to provoke the Soviets into reacting, allowing the US Office of Naval Intelligence to study Soviet radar characteristics, aircraft capabilities, and tactical maneuvers. The armada conducted operations in areas patrolled by Soviet SSBN 's stationed in the strategic Soviet Navy base in Petropavlovsk . On April 4 at least six U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters from the USS ; Enterprise and
10325-507: The People's Park . One student was shot and killed while many police officers and two reporters were injured. Reagan then commanded the state National Guard troops to occupy Berkeley for seventeen days to subdue the protesters, allowing other students to attend class safely. In February 1970, violent protests broke out near the University of California, Santa Barbara , where he once again deployed
10500-614: The Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) is sometimes partly credited to the training of Prussian officers with the wargame Kriegsspiel , which was invented around 1811 and gained popularity with many officers in the Prussian army. These first wargames were played with dice which represented "friction", or the intrusion of less than ideal circumstances during a real war (including morale , meteorology ,
10675-517: The Southern strategy to garner white support for Republican candidates. Reagan's supporters have said that this was his typical anti-big government rhetoric, without racial context or intent. In the October 28 debate , Carter chided Reagan for being against national health insurance. Reagan replied, " There you go again ", though the audience laughed and viewers found him more appealing. Reagan later asked
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#173285495671510850-713: The Soviet General Staff , told Cold War historian Don Orbendorfer that he had never heard of Able Archer. The lack of public Soviet response over Able Archer 83 has led some historians, including Fritz W. Ermarth in his piece, "Observations on the 'War Scare' of 1983 From an Intelligence Perch", to conclude that the Soviet Union did not see Able Archer 83 as posing an immediate threat to the Soviet Union. In May 1984, CIA Soviet specialist Ethan J. Done drafted "Implications of Recent Soviet Military-Political Activities", which concluded: "we believe strongly that Soviet actions are not inspired by, and Soviet leaders do not perceive,
11025-466: The U.S. Air Force in Europe , is credited with the decision not to place NATO forces on increased alert despite increased Soviet readiness. He informed his superior, General Billy M. Minter , of "unusual activity" in the Eastern Bloc but suggested that they wait until the end of the exercise to see if the behavior was caused by it, thereby reducing the possibility of a nuclear exchange. Soviet fears of
11200-708: The USS Midway flew over a Soviet military base in Zeleny Island , one of the Kuril Islands , in a simulated bombing raid. In retaliation the Soviets ordered an overflight of the Aleutian Islands. The Soviet Union also issued a formal diplomatic démarche of protest, which accused the United States of repeated penetrations of Soviet airspace. In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee , Chief of Naval Operations James D. Watkins said that
11375-731: The United States Army Air Forces (AAF). Reagan became an AAF public relations officer and was subsequently assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City where he felt that it was "impossible to remove an incompetent or lazy worker" due to what he felt was "the incompetence, the delays, and inefficiencies" of the federal bureaucracy . Despite this, Reagan participated in the Provisional Task Force Show Unit in Burbank and continued to make theatrical films. He
11550-445: The combat readiness of garrisoned or deployable forces prior to deployment from a home base. While both war games and military exercises aim to simulate real conditions and scenarios for the purpose of preparing and analyzing those scenarios, the distinction between a war game and a military exercise is determined, primarily, by the involvement of actual military forces within the simulation, or lack thereof. Military exercises focus on
11725-464: The economic boom of the 1990s . Reagan took office in the midst of stagflation . The economy briefly experienced growth before plunging into a recession in July 1981. As Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker fought inflation by pursuing a tight money policy of high interest rates , which restricted lending and investment, raised unemployment, and temporarily reduced economic growth. In December 1982,
11900-429: The far north and far east , demonstrating how close NATO ships could get to critical Soviet military bases. In 1981 a group of 83 American , British , Canadian , and Norwegian ships led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower sailed through the Greenland–Iceland–United Kingdom (GIUK) gap undetected by Soviet radar and spy satellites, reaching the Kola Peninsula . There were other operations routinely occurring in
12075-438: The fog of war , etc.). 21st century militaries still use wargames to simulate future wars and model their reaction. According to Manuel de Landa , after World War II the Command, Control and Communications (C ) was transferred from the military staff to the RAND Corporation , the first think tank . Around the mid to late 20th century, computer simulated war games were created to replace traditional war gaming methods with
12250-525: The nuclear button and relegate the Soviet Union to the literal " ash heap of history ". Central Intelligence Agency historian Benjamin B. Fischer lists several concrete occurrences that likely led to the birth of RYaN. The first of these was the use of psychological operations (PSYOP) that began soon after Reagan took office. In his report, Fischer also writes that another CIA source was, at least partially, corroborating Gordievsky's reporting. This Czechoslovak intelligence officer—who worked closely with
12425-432: The presidential oath of office . In his inaugural address , Reagan commented on the country's economic malaise, arguing, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem". As a final insult to President Carter, Iran waited until Reagan had been sworn in before announcing the release of their American hostages. Reagan advocated a laissez-faire philosophy, and promoted
12600-661: The Able Archer war scare occurred more than two years earlier. In a May 1981 closed-session meeting of senior KGB officers and Soviet leaders, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and KGB chairman Yuri Andropov bluntly announced that the United States was preparing a secret nuclear attack on the USSR . To combat this threat, Andropov announced, the KGB and GRU military foreign intelligence arm would begin Operation RYaN . RYaN (Russian: РЯН )
12775-562: The Alternate War Headquarters," the practice of "new nuclear weapons release procedures," including consultations with cells in Washington and London, and the "sensitive, political issue" of numerous "slips of the tongue" in which B-52 sorties were referred to as nuclear "strikes." These variations, seen through "the fog of nuclear exercises," did in fact match official Soviet intelligence-defined indicators for "possible operations by
12950-527: The Black Panthers". The act marked the beginning of both modern legislation and public attitude studies on gun control. Reagan also signed the 1967 Therapeutic Abortion Act that allowed abortions in the cases of rape and incest when a doctor determined the birth would impair the physical or mental health of the mother. He later expressed regret over signing it, saying that he was unaware of the mental health provision. He believed that doctors were interpreting
13125-556: The Brown administration about high taxes, uncontrolled spending, the radicals at the University of California, Berkeley , and the need for accountability in government". Meanwhile, many in the press perceived Reagan as "monumentally ignorant of state issues", though Lou Cannon said that Reagan benefited from an appearance he and Brown made on Meet the Press in September. Ultimately, Reagan won
13300-681: The District of Columbia. He won the popular vote by a narrower margin, receiving nearly 51 percent to Carter's 41 percent and Anderson's 7 percent. In the United States Congress , Republicans won a majority of seats in the Senate for the first time since 1952 while Democrats retained the House of Representatives . Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States on Tuesday, January 20, 1981. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered
13475-463: The Family Law Act that granted no-fault divorces . Insufficiently conservative to Reagan and many other Republicans, President Gerald Ford suffered from multiple political and economic woes. Ford, running for president, was disappointed to hear him also run. Reagan was strongly critical of détente and Ford's policy of détente with the Soviet Union. He repeated "A Time for Choosing" around
13650-438: The KGB on RYaN—"noted that his counterparts were obsessed with the historical parallel between 1941 and 1983. He believed this feeling was almost visceral, not intellectual, and deeply affected Soviet thinking." Psychological operations by the United States began in mid-February 1981 and continued intermittently until 1983. These included a series of clandestine naval operations that stealthily accessed Soviet territorial waters in
13825-537: The National Guard. On April 7, Reagan defended his policies regarding campus protests, saying, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement". During his victorious reelection campaign in 1970, Reagan, remaining critical of government, promised to prioritize welfare reform . He was concerned that the programs were disincentivizing work and that the growing welfare rolls would lead to both an unbalanced budget and another big tax hike in 1972. At
14000-607: The National Security Archive additionally requested the Perroots memorandum from the DIA but the organization claimed that the letter was lost, leading to a 2019 lawsuit. However, in February 2021 the Historian's Office of the U.S. State Department declassified and released the document as part of its Foreign Relations of the United States collection. The document confirmed for the first time that
14175-651: The New Hampshire primary by more than 39,000 votes. Soon thereafter, Reagan's opponents began dropping out of the primaries, including Anderson, who left the party to become an independent candidate. Reagan easily captured the presidential nomination and chose Bush as his running mate at the Detroit convention in July. The general election pitted Reagan against Carter amid the multitude of domestic concerns and ongoing Iran hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979. Reagan's campaign worried that Carter would be able to secure
14350-539: The Reagan administration eliminated almost half of the federal regulations that had existed in 1981. The 1982 Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act deregulated savings and loan associations by letting them make a variety of loans and investments outside of real estate. After the bill's passage, savings and loans associations engaged in riskier activities, and the leaders of some institutions embezzled funds. The administration's inattentiveness toward
14525-564: The Republican primary, Reagan defeated George Christopher , a moderate Republican who William F. Buckley Jr. thought had painted Reagan as extreme. Reagan's general election opponent, incumbent governor Pat Brown , attempted to label Reagan as an extremist and tout his own accomplishments. Reagan portrayed himself as a political outsider, and charged Brown as responsible for the Watts riots and lenient on crime. In numerous speeches, Reagan "hit
14700-527: The SAG presidency on June 7, 1960, and also left the board; George Chandler succeeded him as SAG president. In January 1940, Reagan married Jane Wyman , his co-star in the 1938 film Brother Rat . Together, they had two biological daughters: Maureen in 1941, and Christine in 1947 (born prematurely and died the following day). They adopted one son, Michael , in 1945. Wyman filed to divorce Reagan in June 1948. She
14875-452: The Soviet Union was "as naked as a jaybird [on the Kamchatka Peninsula ], and they know it". On September 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KAL 007) was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor over the Sea of Japan near Moneron Island (just west of Sakhalin island) while flying over prohibited Soviet airspace. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including Larry McDonald ,
15050-420: The Soviet military loaded nuclear warheads onto bombers and indicated that it had gotten closer to nuclear war than previously thought, with Perroots claiming that "a precautionary generation of forces" by NATO could have instigated a nuclear conflict. Research by Simon Miles, an assistant professor of Public Policy and Russian and Eurasian Studies at Duke University ’s Sanford School writing in 2020 – prior to
15225-706: The Supreme Court's reshaping has been described as conservative. Early in August 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike , violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. On August 3, Reagan said that he would fire air traffic controllers if they did not return to work within 48 hours; according to him, 38 percent did not return. On August 13, Reagan fired roughly 12,000 striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order. He used military controllers and supervisors to handle
15400-505: The U.S. and " IVAN " representing the Soviet Union. Early game theory included only zero-sum games , which means that when one player won, the other automatically lost. The prisoner's dilemma , which models the situation of two prisoners in which each one is given the choice to betray or not the other, gave three alternatives to the game: This model gave the basis for the massive retaliation nuclear doctrine. The zero-sum fallacy and cooperative games would be theorized only later, while
15575-543: The US and its allies on British territory in preparation for RYaN"—the KGB code name for a feared Western nuclear missile attack. Upon learning that US nuclear activity mirrored its hypothesized first strike activity, Moscow Centre sent its residencies a flash telegram on November 8 or 9 ( Oleg Gordievsky cannot recall which), incorrectly reporting an alert on American bases and frantically asking for further information regarding an American first strike. The alert precisely coincided with
15750-425: The USSR's western border, represented a major threat to the Soviets. The Pershing II was capable of destroying Soviet "hard targets" such as underground missile silos and command and control bunkers . The missiles could be emplaced in and launched from any surveyed site in minutes, and because the guidance system was self-correcting, the missile system possessed a genuine first strike capability. Furthermore, it
15925-518: The United States. Afterward, Reagan starred in Kings Row (1942) as a leg amputee, asking, "Where's the rest of me?" His performance was considered his best by many critics. Reagan became a star, with Gallup polls placing him "in the top 100 stars" from 1941 to 1942. World War II interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again as Warner Bros. became uncertain about his ability to generate ticket sales. Reagan, who had
16100-548: The Warsaw Pact. The scenario envisioned proxy conflicts in Syria, South Yemen , and Iran escalating after Yugoslavia shifted to the Blue bloc with Orange forces invading Finland , Norway , and West Germany . Dr. Gregory Pedlow, a SHAPE historian, explains the war game: The exercise scenario began with Orange (the hypothetical opponent) opening hostilities in all regions of ACE [ Allied Command Europe ] on 4 November (three days before
16275-460: The actions taken (Defense Ethics Program, Department of National Defense, 2012). These simulations involve crude living conditions, sleep deprivations, time limit, and either lack or ambiguous amount of information. A subset of simulated exercises is the Table Top Exercise (TTX), typically limited to senior personnel stepping through the decision-making processes they would employ in a crisis,
16450-466: The administration took it for granted that the Russians, like ourselves, considered it unthinkable that the United States would launch a first strike against them. But the more experience I had with Soviet leaders and other heads of state who knew them, the more I began to realize that many Soviet officials feared us not only as adversaries but as potential aggressors who might hurl nuclear weapons at them in
16625-471: The ambiguity of a role one may encounter and challenge of ethics. This will also lead the military personnel to have to make a difficult call in challenging circumstances. Even in difficult situations and conditions, military personnel still has to follow rules and regulations such as: 1) when the right thing to do is not immediately clear; 2) when two or more important principles or values support different actions, and 3) when some harm will result, regardless of
16800-419: The amount of federal tax had fallen for all or most taxpayers, but most strongly affected the wealthy. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the number of tax brackets and top tax rate, and almost doubled personal exemptions . To Reagan, the tax cuts would not have increased the deficit as long as there was enough economic growth and spending cuts. His policies proposed that economic growth would occur when
16975-535: The arms race , transitioned Cold War policy away from the policies of détente with the Soviet Union , and ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada . Within the same period, Reagan also survived an assassination attempt , fought public-sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs , and was slow to respond to the growing AIDS epidemic . In the 1984 presidential election , he defeated Carter's former vice president, Walter Mondale , in another landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including
17150-763: The attack ended as the Able Archer exercise finished on November 11. Upon learning of the Soviet reaction to Able Archer 83 by way of the double agent Oleg Gordievsky, a British SIS asset, President Reagan commented, "I don't see how they could believe that—but it's something to think about." The double agent Oleg Gordievsky , whose highest rank was KGB rezident in London, is the only Soviet source ever to have published an account of Able Archer 83. Oleg Kalugin and Yuri Shvets , who were KGB officers in 1983, have published accounts that acknowledge Operation RYaN, but they do not mention Able Archer 83. Gordievsky and other Warsaw Pact intelligence agents were extremely skeptical about
17325-478: The audience if they were better off than they were four years ago, slightly paraphrasing Roosevelt's words in 1934. In 1983, Reagan's campaign managers were revealed to having obtained Carter's debate briefing book before the debates. On November 4, 1980, Reagan won in a decisive victory in the Electoral College over Carter, carrying 44 states and receiving 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 in six states and
17500-486: The backing of Reagan Democrats . Though he advocated socially conservative view points, Reagan focused much of his campaign on attacks against Carter's foreign policy . In August, Reagan gave a speech at the Neshoba County Fair , stating his belief in states' rights . Joseph Crespino argues that the visit was designed to reach out to Wallace-inclined voters, and some also saw these actions as an extension of
17675-457: The board elected Reagan SAG president for the second time; he replaced Howard Keel , who had resigned. During this second stint, Reagan managed to secure payments for actors whose theatrical films had been released between 1948 and 1959 and subsequently televised. The producers were initially required to pay the actors fees, but they ultimately settled instead for providing pensions and paying residuals for films made after 1959. Reagan resigned from
17850-512: The budget cuts Reagan enacted damaged Berkeley's student-faculty ratio and research. Additionally, the homicide rate doubled and armed robbery rates rose by even more during Reagan's eight years, even with the many laws Reagan signed to try toughening criminal sentencing and reforming the criminal justice system. Reagan strongly supported capital punishment, but his efforts to enforce it were thwarted by People v. Anderson in 1972. According to his son, Michael, Reagan said that he regretted signing
18025-526: The budget had a surplus, which Reagan preferred "to give back to the people". In 1967, Reagan reacted to the Black Panther Party 's strategy of copwatching by signing the Mulford Act to prohibit the public carrying of firearms. The act was California's most restrictive piece of gun control legislation , with critics saying that it was "overreacting to the political activism of organizations such as
18200-471: The build up to an actual invasion, as in the cases of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , or it can provoke opponents at peace to perceive it as such, as in the case of Able Archer 83 . A Command Post Exercise (CPX) typically focuses on the battle readiness of staffs such as a particular Unified Combatant Command or one of its components at any level. It may run in parallel with an FTX or its equivalent, or as
18375-525: The city of Berkeley , making it a major theme in his campaigning. On February 5, 1969, Reagan declared a state of emergency in response to ongoing protests and acts of violence at the University of California, Berkeley, and sent in the California Highway Patrol . In May 1969, these officers, along with local officers from Berkeley and Alameda county, clashed with protestors over a site known as
18550-589: The conclusion of the exercise on November 11. The exercise attracted public attention in 2015 when the President's Intelligence Advisory Board's 1990 report on the exercise was declassified. Some scholars have argued that Able Archer 83 was one of the times when the world has come closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The declassification of related documents in 2021 supported this notion. Other scholars have disputed that Able Archer 83 almost led to nuclear war. The greatest catalyst to
18725-577: The country before announcing his campaign on November 20, 1975, when he discussed economic and social problems, and to a lesser extent, foreign affairs. Both candidates were determined to knock each other out early in the primaries, but Reagan would devastatingly lose the first five primaries beginning with New Hampshire, where he popularized the welfare queen narrative about Linda Taylor , exaggerating her misuse of welfare benefits and igniting voter resentment for welfare reform, but never overtly mentioning her name or race. In Florida, Reagan referred to
18900-462: The debate began. The moderator asked Bob Malloy, the volume operator, to mute Reagan's microphone. After Breen repeated his demand to Malloy, Reagan furiously replied, "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green! [ sic ]". This turned out to be the turning point of the debate and the primary race. Ultimately, the four additional candidates left, and the debate continued between Reagan and Bush. Reagan's polling numbers improved, and he won
19075-471: The early signs of a nuclear attack, NATO began to simulate one. The exercise, codenamed Able Archer, involved numerous NATO allies and simulated NATO's Command, Control, and Communications (C³) procedures during a nuclear war. Some Soviet leaders, because of the preceding world events and the exercise's particularly realistic nature, feared that the exercise was a cover for an actual attack. A KGB telegram of February 17 described one likely scenario: In view of
19250-525: The enforcement of civil rights law, arousing the ire of civil rights advocates. In 1987, Reagan unsuccessfully nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court as a way to achieve his civil rights policy that could not be fulfilled during his presidency; his administration had opposed affirmative action , particularly in education, federal assistance programs, housing and employment, but Reagan reluctantly continued these policies. In housing, Reagan's administration saw considerably fewer fair housing cases filed than
19425-544: The evolution of nuclear technology and missiles made the massive retaliation nuclear strategy obsolete. Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party , he became an important figure in the American conservative movement , and his presidency
19600-510: The exercise. This was desired because—as previously stated—the purpose of the exercise was to test procedures for transitioning from conventional to nuclear operations. As a result of Orange advance, its persistent use of chemical weapons, and its clear intentions to rapidly commit second echelon forces, SACEUR requested political guidance on the use of nuclear weapons early on Day 1 of the exercise (7 November 1983). Thus, on November 7, 1983, as Soviet intelligence services were attempting to detect
19775-625: The facilities from which the attack would originate. It is possible that the goal of Operation RYaN was to discover the first intent of a nuclear attack and then preempt it. The exact impetus for the implementation of Operation RYaN is not known for sure. Oleg Gordievsky , the highest-ranking KGB official ever to defect, attributed it to "a potentially lethal combination of Reaganite rhetoric and Soviet paranoia". Gordievsky conjectured that Brezhnev and Andropov, who "were very, very old-fashioned and easily influenced ... by Communist dogmas", truly believed that an antagonistic Ronald Reagan would push
19950-560: The fact that the measures involved in State Orange [a nuclear attack within 36 hours] have to be carried out with the utmost secrecy (under the guise of maneuvers, training etc.) in the shortest possible time, without disclosing the content of operational plans, it is highly probable that the battle alarm system may be used to prepare a surprise RYaN [nuclear attack] in peacetime. Also on February 17, KGB Permanent Operational Assignment assigned its agents to monitor several possible indicators of
20125-489: The false alarms were caused by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds underneath the satellites' orbits. A scenario released by NATO details the hypothetical lead-up to the Able Archer exercise, which was used by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., and the British Ministry of Defence in London. The war game was intended to be "Blue" forces representing NATO and "Orange" forces representing
20300-477: The fantastically horrible events that would surround such a scenario." Reagan described the briefing in his own words: "A most sobering experience with [ Caspar Weinberger ] and Gen. Vessey in the Situation Room , a briefing on our complete plan in the event of a nuclear attack." These two glimpses of nuclear war primed Reagan for Able Archer 83, giving him a very specific picture of what would occur had
20475-485: The forms of tabletop games such as chess and Go . The modern use of military exercises grew out of the military need to study warfare and to reenact old battles for learning purposes. During the age of Kabinettskriege (Cabinet wars), Frederick the Great , King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, "put together his armies as a well-oiled clockwork mechanism whose components were robot -like warriors. No individual initiative
20650-569: The goal of optimizing and speeding up the process and making it possible to analyze more complex scenarios with greater ease. In 1958, the Naval War college installed a computer war game system where their traditional war gaming activities were held. The system was called the Navy Electronic Warfare System, and cost over $ 10 million to install. The change from traditional war gaming methods to electronic computer simulated ones meant that
20825-525: The governorship with 57 percent of the vote compared to Brown's 42 percent. Brown had spent much of California's funds on new programs, prompting them to use accrual accounting to avoid raising taxes. Consequently, it generated a larger deficit, and Reagan would call for reduced government spending and tax hikes to balance the budget . He worked with Jesse M. Unruh on securing tax increases and promising future property tax cuts. This caused some conservatives to accuse Reagan of betraying his principles. As
21000-405: The ground rules hours before the debate. As a result, the Reagan campaign agreed to pay for the debate. Reagan said that as he was funding the debate, he could decide who would debate. During the debate, when Breen was laying out the ground rules and attempting to ask the first question, Reagan interrupted in protest to make an introductory statement and wanted other candidates to be included before
21175-628: The history of the United States. It also ushered in the final major escalation in rhetoric of the Cold War. On June 8, 1982, Reagan, in a speech to the British House of Commons , declared that "Freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history." On March 23, 1983, Reagan announced one of the most ambitious and controversial components to this strategy, the Strategic Defense Initiative (labeled "Star Wars" by
21350-482: The host for General Electric Theater and also worked as a motivational speaker for General Electric . Subsequently, Reagan's " A Time for Choosing " speech during the 1964 U.S. presidential election launched his rise as a leading conservative figure. After being elected governor of California in 1966 , he raised the state taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus and implemented harsh crackdowns on university protests. Following his loss to Gerald Ford in
21525-427: The host of MCA Inc. television production General Electric Theater at Wasserman's recommendation. It featured multiple guest stars, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, continuing to use her stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three episodes. When asked how Reagan was able to recruit such stars to appear on the show during television's infancy, he replied, "Good stories, top direction, production quality". However,
21700-453: The industry contributed to the savings and loan crisis and costly bailouts. The deficits were exacerbated by the early 1980s recession, which cut into federal revenue. The national debt tripled between the fiscal years of 1980 and 1989, and the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product rose from 33 percent in 1981 to 53 percent by 1989. During his time in office, Reagan never fulfilled his 1980 campaign promise of submitting
21875-540: The island was Elizabeth II . A further startling aspect reported by KGB agents concerned the NATO communications used during the exercise. According to Moscow Centre's February 17 memo, It [is] of the highest importance to keep a watch on the functioning of communications networks and systems since through them information is passed about the adversary's intentions and, above all, about his plans to use nuclear weapons and practical implementation of these. In addition, changes in
22050-541: The last minute the squadron would peel off and return home." In April 1983, the U.S. Pacific Fleet conducted FleetEx '83-1 , the largest fleet exercise held to date in the North Pacific . The conglomeration of approximately 40 ships with 23,000 crewmembers and 300 aircraft was arguably one of the most powerful naval armadas ever assembled. US aircraft and ships moved counterclockwise from the Aleutian Islands towards
22225-510: The local chapter. Reagan played at the guard position for the 1930 and 1931 Eureka Red Devils football teams and recalled a time when two black football teammates were refused service at a segregated hotel; he invited them to his parents' home nearby in Dixon and his parents welcomed them. At the time, his parents' stance on racial questions was unusually progressive in Dixon. Reagan himself had grown up with very few black Americans there and
22400-415: The media and critics). While Reagan portrayed the initiative as a safety net against nuclear war, leaders in the Soviet Union viewed it as a definitive departure from the relative weapons parity of détente and an escalation of the arms race into space . Yuri Andropov , who had become General Secretary following Brezhnev's death in November 1982, criticised Reagan for "inventing new plans on how to unleash
22575-458: The method of operating communications systems and the level of manning may in themselves indicate the state of preparation for RYaN. Soviet intelligence appeared to substantiate these suspicions by reporting that NATO was indeed using unique, never-before-seen procedures as well as message formats more sophisticated than previous exercises, which possibly indicated the proximity of nuclear attack. Finally, during Able Archer 83, NATO forces simulated
22750-512: The mounting federal debt , Reagan signed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 , one of the eleven times Reagan raised taxes. The bill doubled the federal cigarette tax , rescinded a portion of the corporate tax cuts from the 1981 tax bill, and according to Paul Krugman , "a third of the 1981 cut" overall. Many of his supporters condemned the bill, but Reagan defended his preservation of cuts on individual income tax rates. By 1983,
22925-467: The nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained. The breaking of the PATCO strike demoralized organized labor, and the number of strikes fell greatly in the 1980s. With the assent of Reagan's sympathetic National Labor Relations Board appointees, many companies also won wage and benefit cutbacks from unions, especially in the manufacturing sector. During Reagan's presidency,
23100-400: The nature of the relationship between the countries and the number of them involved. These exercises allow for better coordination between militaries and observation of enemy tactics, and serve as a visible show of strength and cooperation for the participating countries. According to a 2021 study, joint military exercises within well-defined alliances usually deter adversaries without producing
23275-519: The number of homeless individuals increased during the 1980s. Critics have contended that a majority of the jobs created during this decade paid the minimum wage. In 1981, in an effort to keep it solvent, Reagan approved a plan for cuts to Social Security. He later backed off of these plans due to public backlash. He then created the Greenspan Commission to keep Social Security financially secure, and in 1983 he signed amendments to raise both
23450-440: The other events in 1983—that they really felt a NATO attack was at least possible and that they took a number of measures to enhance their military readiness short of mobilization. After going through the experience at the time, then through the postmortems, and now through the documents, I don't think the Soviets were crying wolf. They may not have believed a NATO attack was imminent in November 1983, but they did seem to believe that
23625-474: The pastor was out of town. Reagan credited her spiritual influence and he became a Christian . According to American political figure Stephen Vaughn , Reagan's values came from his pastor, and the First Christian Church's religious, economic and social positions "coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan". Jack focused on making money to take care of the family, but this
23800-479: The position of National Security Advisor just two weeks earlier, realized the implications of such participation early in the exercise's planning and rejected it. Another illusory indicator likely noticed by Soviet analysts was a high rate of ciphered communications between the United Kingdom and the United States. Soviet intelligence was informed that "so-called nuclear consultations in NATO are probably one of
23975-671: The program's payroll taxes and retirement age for benefits. He had signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to cut funding for federal assistance such as food stamps, unemployment benefits , subsidized housing and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children , and would discontinue the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act . On the other side, defense spending doubled between 1981 and 1985. During Reagan's presidency, Project Socrates operated within
24150-549: The provision loosely and more abortions were resulting. After Reagan won the 1966 election, he and his advisors planned a run in the 1968 Republican presidential primaries . He ran as an unofficial candidate to cut into Nixon's southern support and be a compromise candidate if there were to be a brokered convention . He won California's delegates, but Nixon secured enough delegates for the nomination . Reagan had previously been critical of former governor Brown and university administrators for tolerating student demonstrations in
24325-416: The publication of previously classified documents, has disputed that Able Archer 83 almost led to nuclear war. With many individuals associating the Able Archer incident that occurred in 1983 as an event that nearly started a nuclear war, it is no surprise that there are a plethora of myths that surround the event. Many academic scholars have gone back and forth on whether or not this event was enough to trigger
24500-450: The re-opened investigation into a classified report covering Able Archer re-sparked interest in the event. This newfound interest sparked curiosity, and with it, narratives surrounding the exercise that could have caused a nuclear war. That is not to say that the narrative surrounding the event does not have some merit in its core, as a survey conducted by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) in 1989 confirmed that there
24675-696: The release of the American hostages in Iran as part of the October surprise , Carter "suggested that Reagan would wreck Social Security " and portrayed him as a warmonger, and Anderson carried support from liberal Republicans dissatisfied with Reagan's conservatism. One of Reagan's key strengths was his appeal to the rising conservative movement. Though most conservative leaders espoused cutting taxes and budget deficits, many conservatives focused more closely on social issues like abortion and gay rights . Evangelical Protestants became an increasingly important voting bloc, and they generally supported Reagan. Reagan also won
24850-433: The remaining uncommitted delegates and prevailed, earning 1,187 to Reagan's 1,070. Before giving his acceptance speech, Ford invited Reagan to address the convention; Reagan emphasized individual freedom and the dangers of nuclear weapons. In 1977, Ford told Cannon that Reagan's primary challenge contributed to his own narrow loss to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 United States presidential election . Reagan emerged as
25025-481: The results that they can provide are limited by possibilities. War games cannot be used to achieve predictive results, as the nature of war and the scenarios that war games aim to simulate are not deterministic. Therefore, war games are primarily used to consider multiple possible outcomes of any given decision, or number of decisions, made in the simulated scenario. These possible outcomes are analyzed and compared, and cause-and-effect relationships are typically sought for
25200-617: The rights of churches and business owners. Later in September, legislation was passed to correct loopholes in the Fair Housing Act of 1968 . Early in his presidency, Reagan appointed Clarence M. Pendleton Jr. , known for his opposition to affirmative action and equal pay for men and women, as chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights despite Pendleton's hostility toward long-established civil rights views. Pendleton and Reagan's subsequent appointees greatly eroded
25375-517: The same nation training together are described as having a joint exercise. Those involving forces of multiple nations are described as having a combined exercise or coalition exercise. These are called a bilateral exercise if based on security agreements between two nations, or a multilateral exercise if the agreement is between multiple nations. Other types of exercise include the Tactical Exercise Without Troops (TEWT), also known as
25550-509: The same time, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates to combat inflation, putting the American economy in a mild recession . Reagan worked with Bob Moretti to tighten up the eligibility requirements so that the financially needy could continue receiving payments. This was only accomplished after Reagan softened his criticism of Nixon's Family Assistance Plan . Nixon then lifted regulations to shepherd California's experiment. In 1976,
25725-509: The same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending. Reagan's policies also contributed to the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet communism . Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan post-presidency, and his physical and mental capacities gradually deteriorated, ultimately leading to his death in 2004. Historical rankings of U.S. presidents have typically placed Reagan in
25900-859: The seven- to ten-day period estimated between NATO's preliminary decision and an actual strike. The Soviet Union, believing its only chance of surviving a NATO strike was to preempt it, readied its nuclear arsenal. The CIA reported activity in the Baltic Military District and in Czechoslovakia , and it determined that nuclear-capable aircraft in Poland and East Germany were placed "on high alert status with readying of nuclear strike forces". A 1989 US memorandum said that Soviet commanders ordered nuclear warheads to be placed on 4th Air Army bombers and for Group of Soviet Forces in Germany fighter-bombers to placed on
26075-561: The share of employees who were part of a labor union dropped from approximately one-fourth of the total workforce to approximately one-sixth of the total workforce. Despite Reagan having opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , the bill was extended for 25 years in 1982. He initially opposed the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day , and alluded to claims that King was associated with communists during his career, but signed
26250-532: The simulation of real, full-scale military operations in controlled hostile conditions in attempts to reproduce war time decisions and activities for training purposes or to analyze the outcome of possible war time decisions. War games, however, can be much smaller than full-scale military operations, do not typically include the use of functional military equipment, and decisions and actions are carried out by artificial players to simulate possible decisions and actions within an artificial scenario which usually represents
26425-401: The situation further developed. After receiving intelligence reports from sources including Gordievsky, it was clear that the Soviets were unnerved. While officials were concerned with the Soviet panic, they were hesitant about believing the proximity of a Soviet attack. Secretary of State George P. Shultz thought it "incredible, at least to us" that the Soviets would believe the US would launch
26600-464: The situation was very dangerous. And US intelligence [SNIE 11–9–84 and SNIE 11–10–84] had failed to grasp the true extent of their anxiety. A report written by Nina Stewart for the President's Foreign Advisory Board concurs with Gates and disputes the previous CIA reports, concluding that further analysis shows that the Soviets were, in fact, genuinely fearful of US aggression. The decision of Gen. Perroots
26775-646: The speech was not enough to turn around the faltering Goldwater campaign , it increased Reagan's profile among conservatives. David S. Broder and Stephen H. Hess called it "the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with his famous 'Cross of Gold' address ". In January 1966, Reagan announced his candidacy for the California governorship , repeating his stances on individual freedom and big government . When he met with black Republicans in March, he
26950-496: The stages of immediate preparation by the adversary for RYaN". To the Soviet analysts, this burst of secret communications between the US and the UK one month before the beginning of Able Archer may have appeared to be this "consultation". In reality, the burst of communication was about the US invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983, which caused a great deal of diplomatic traffic as the sovereign of
27125-405: The start of the exercise) and Blue (NATO) declaring a general alert. Orange initiated the use of chemical weapons on 6 November and by the end of that day had used such weapons throughout ACE. All of these events had taken place prior to the start of the exercise and were simply part of the written scenario. There had thus been three days of fighting and a deteriorating situation prior to the start of
27300-1056: The station received by wire as the games were in progress. Simultaneously, he often expressed his opposition to racism. In 1936, while traveling with the Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. Reagan arrived at Hollywood in 1937, debuting in Love Is on the Air (1937). Using a simple and direct approach to acting and following his directors' instructions, Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films , before beginning military service in April 1942. He broke out of these types of films by portraying George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), which would be rejuvenated when reporters called Reagan "the Gipper" while he campaigned for president of
27475-445: The tax cuts spur investments, which would result in more spending, consumption, and ergo tax revenue. This theoretical relationship has been illustrated by some with the controversial Laffer curve . Critics labeled this " trickle-down economics ", the belief that tax policies that benefit the wealthy will spread to the poor. Milton Friedman and Robert Mundell argued that these policies invigorated America's economy and contributed to
27650-585: The unknown factors within the simulation. It is typically the relationships between visual aspects of the simulation that aid in the assessment of the problems that are simulated within war games, like geographic locations and positionings that would be difficult to discern or analyze at full-scale and for complex environments. Military exercises involving multiple branches of the same military are known as joint exercises , while military exercises involving two or more countries are known as combined , coalition , bilateral , or multilateral exercises , depending on
27825-599: The upper tier, and his post-presidential approval ratings by the general public are usually high. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment and commercial building in Tampico, Illinois , as the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan . Nelle was committed to the Disciples of Christ , which believed in the Social Gospel . She led prayer meetings and ran mid-week prayers at her church when
28000-470: The value and accuracy of a war game simulation was less dependent on skill and individual experiences, and more dependent on quantitative data and complicated analysis methods. Von Neumann was employed by the RAND Corporation, and his game theory was used in wargames to model nuclear dissuasion during the Cold War . Thus, the U.S. nuclear strategy was defined using wargames, " SAM " representing
28175-528: The viewership declined in the 1960s and the show was canceled in 1962. In 1965, Reagan became the host of another MCA production, Death Valley Days . Reagan began his political career as a Democrat , viewing Franklin D. Roosevelt as "a true hero". He joined the American Veterans Committee and Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), worked with
28350-400: Was a Russian acronym for 'nuclear missile attack' ( Ракетно Ядерное Нападение , Raketno Yadernoe Napadenie ); Operation RYaN was the largest, most comprehensive peacetime intelligence-gathering operation in Soviet history. Agents abroad were charged with monitoring the figures who would decide to launch a nuclear attack, the service and technical personnel who would implement the attack, and
28525-470: Was a belief that the US sought to have military superiority over the USSR. However, the PFIAB did not confirm that individuals believed the exercise brought war with the USSR closer to reality; rather, they only confirm what everyone knew. The PFIAB concluded that the event merely increased tensions, but never led to any confirmed belief in an attack on any nation's behalf; rather, the PFIAB only could confirm that it
28700-403: Was allowed to Frederick's soldiers; their only role was to cooperate in the creation of walls of projectiles through synchronized firepower." This was in the pursuit of a more effective army, and such practices made it easier to look at war from a top-down perspective. Disciplined troops should respond predictably, allowing study to be confined to maneuvers and command . Prussia 's victory over
28875-472: Was also ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the sixth War Loan Drive before being reassigned to Fort MacArthur until his discharge on December 9, 1945, as a captain . Throughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films . When Robert Montgomery resigned as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on March 10, 1947, Reagan was elected to that position in
29050-498: Was complicated by his alcoholism. Reagan had an older brother, Neil . The family lived in Chicago, Galesburg , and Monmouth before returning to Tampico. In 1920, they settled in Dixon, Illinois , living in a house near the H. C. Pitney Variety Store Building . Reagan attended Dixon High School , where he developed interests in drama and football . His first job involved working as
29225-577: Was criticized for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . Reagan responded that bigotry was not in his nature and later argued that certain provisions of the act infringed upon the rights of property owners. After the Supreme Court of California ruled that the initiative that repealed the Rumford Act was unconstitutional in May, he voiced his support for the act's repeal, but later preferred amending it. In
29400-415: Was described as "fortuitous", noting "[he] acted correctly out of instinct, not informed guidance", suggesting that had the depth of Soviet fear been fully realized, NATO may have responded differently. Some historians, including Beth A. Fischer in her book The Reagan Reversal , pin Able Archer 83 as profoundly affecting President Reagan and his turn from a policy of confrontation towards the Soviet Union to
29575-435: Was estimated that the missiles (deployed in West Germany ) could reach targets in the western Soviet Union within four to six minutes of their launch. These capabilities led Soviet leaders to believe that the only way to survive a Pershing II strike was to preempt it. This fear of an undetected Pershing II attack, according to CIA historian Benjamin B. Fischer , was explicitly linked to the mandate of Operation RYaN: to detect
29750-443: Was oblivious to racial discrimination. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan took a job in Davenport, Iowa , as a sports broadcaster for four football games in the Big Ten Conference . He then worked for WHO radio in Des Moines as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs . His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that
29925-436: Was ordered for active duty while he was filming Kings Row . Wasserman and Warner Bros. lawyers successfully sent draft deferments to complete the film in October 1941. However, to avoid accusations of Reagan being a draft dodger , the studio let him go in April 1942. Reagan reported for duty with severe near-sightedness . His first assignment was at Fort Mason as a liaison officer , a role that allowed him to transfer to
30100-424: Was probable the USSR believed the exercise could have been interpreted as an attack. Military exercise A military exercise , training exercise , maneuver ( manoeuvre ), or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations . Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of warfare or test tactics and strategies without actual combat . They also ensure
30275-413: Was shot by John Hinckley Jr. outside the Washington Hilton . Also struck were: James Brady , Thomas Delahanty , and Tim McCarthy . Although "right on the margin of death" upon arrival at George Washington University Hospital , Reagan underwent surgery and recovered quickly from a broken rib, a punctured lung, and internal bleeding. Professor J. David Woodard says that the assassination attempt "created
30450-412: Was that the system was new and known to have malfunctioned previously; also, a full-scale nuclear attack from the United States would involve thousands of simultaneous launches, not a single missile. Later, the system reported four more ICBM launches headed to the Soviet Union, but Petrov again dismissed the reports as false. The investigation that followed revealed that the system indeed malfunctioned and
30625-587: Was uninterested in politics, and occasionally recriminated, reconciled and separated with him. Although Reagan was unprepared, the divorce was finalized in July 1949. Reagan would also remain close to his children. Later that year, Reagan met Nancy Davis after she contacted him in his capacity as the SAG president about her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood ; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis. They married in March 1952, and had two children, Patti in October 1952, and Ron in May 1958. Reagan has three grandchildren. Reagan became
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