[4] In the following September, the civilian airliner Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was downed by Soviet fighter jets over nearby Moneron Island.

[6] During the 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union had pursued a policy of détente, whereby both sides trying to improve their geopolitical situation while minimizing the risk of direct war between the superpowers.

[7] Extensive trade ties were established between nations of both blocs, to the point that approximately 70 percent of the Soviet Union's grain came from the United States.

To this end, Nixon attempted to induce China to support the peace process and proceeded to make a historic trip to the communist nation.

[13] Despite these criticisms, détente continued throughout the 1970s, enjoying support from members of both sides of the American political divide, with both parties nominating pro-détente candidates in the 1976 Presidential Election (President Ford vs.

[16] The absence of significant western criticism of continued human rights abuses resulted in rising discontent among Eastern European dissidents, with Czech playwright (and future President) Vachlav Havel labeling détente as "naive, thickheaded.

"[23] The coup and subsequent political violence provoked a civil war between the Marxist state and its non-communist opponents, which included, among others, radical Islamists.

The entrance of the Soviet Union into the Afghanistan War is widely credited with ending support for détente and provoked a series of retaliatory responses from the United States, such as the aforementioned withdrawal from SALT II, as well as the imposition of a grain embargo, the boycotting of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, and the beginning of weapons sales to Afghan anti-Soviet rebels.

On December 13, 1981, General Jaruzelski, head of the Polish military, declared a state of martial law across Poland, ordering the arrest of members of Solidarity and other opposition organizations.

By the end of 1979, it deployed 130 SS-20 missiles capable of launching over 390 warheads to the western part of the Soviet Union and to allied Warsaw Pact states.

[37] In order to enhance the nuclear deterrence of the NATO alliance, member states committed to deploy several hundred missiles to Western Europe, mainly Pershing II.

However, the development of more sophisticated Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) technology rendered the B-52 more vulnerable to attacks from the ground and enemy fighters.

[40] “Never, perhaps, in the postwar decades has the situation in the world been as explosive and, hence, more difficult and unfavorable as in the first half of the 1980s.” - Mikhail Gorbachev, February 1986 One of the closest calls during this period of the Cold War happened during the Able Archer exercise performed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1983.

[41] After they had received information on what appeared to be a mobilization of NATO forces in Europe, many military officials in the Soviet Union believed that the United States was using the exercise to disguise a strategic nuclear first strike.

The movements were most active in Europe, the US, Canada and Japan and a culmination was reached in 1982, June 12, when a million people marched in New York for an end to the Cold War arms race and nuclear weapons.

Along with the various military confrontations going on across the continent, South Africa, then still under the control the apartheid government, faced increasing isolation due to both its domestic repression of the indigenous black population and its assertive foreign policy.

Samples of the supposed chemical agent that were supplied to a group of independent scientists turned out to be honeybee feces, suggesting that the "yellow rain" was due to mass defecation of digested pollen grains from large swarms of bees.

[52] This chemical agent had many severe symptoms including but not limited to: vomiting, damage to the nervous system, skin and eye irritation, vision impairment or loss, and diarrhea.

The year 1979 witnessed the overthrow of the ruling Somoza family in Nicaragua and their subsequent replacement by the left-wing Sandinista movement, led by Daniel Ortega.

[55] Concerned that Nicaragua was the first "domino" to fall in Central America, the United States increased arms sales to friendly governments in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, each of whom were dealing with their own leftist-insurgencies.

Colombia witnessed the continuation of their several decade long civil war with the American-backed government of Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala fighting various Marxist rebels and drug smugglers.

In 1981, the Chairman of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev launched the largest ever Soviet intelligence gathering campaign, Operation RYAN (Russian: Raketno Yadernoye Napadenie (Ракетно ядерное нападение), meaning "nuclear missile attack").

With all of the information flowing in, it was unclear which piece of intelligence marked the initiation of a preemptive strike, which would call for immediate action from the Soviet side, before the U.S. could even get weapons in the air.

[61] The timing of this event along with the multiple other conflicts between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1983 created a political climate of high tension which could have quickly escalated to disastrous actions by either side in response.

Just as the USSR intensified its scrutiny of nuclear activity through Operation RYAN, the U.S. and NATO began their most advanced, in-depth, and realistic war simulation yet, known as Able Archer.

Launched in November 1983, what made this particular war-game so different, and ultimately so consequential, was the inclusion of an end-game scenario that simulated the nuclear option should the war reach such a level.

[5] Soviet intelligence was able to gather that this new aspect had been included, but they were unable to tell whether or not it was all part of the game, or if there was a potential threat of actual nuclear weapons being released.

This escalation in the type of simulation being performed by NATO combined with the presence of Pershing II missiles in West Germany put the USSR on edge.

Reports from Soviet sources also claim that certain forces were placed on high alert and multiple SS-20 and SS–19 mobile strategic nuclear missiles were moved and waiting.

[64] Brezhnev's health was starting to decline due to his heavy smoking and addiction to sleeping pills toward the end of his time leading the Soviet Union.