The US State Department has quietly removed key portions of an official historical record detailing one of the Cold War's most dangerous moments, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. The recently altered volume concerns the 1983 Able Archer incident, when a NATO nuclear exercise was mistaken in Moscow for a potential real strike.

Under US law, the department must release a comprehensive and reliable account of American foreign policy decisions covering a 30-year period. A massive digital collection on the Ronald Reagan administration was originally published in 2022, spanning more than 14,000 pages. However, when the file was reposted in January, 15 pages had disappeared.

The omitted section focused entirely on the events of 1983. According to the version that had been available before the deletion, Soviet authorities "implemented military and intelligence activities that previously were seen only during actual crises," including putting fighter jets on standby and preparing "for immediate use of nuclear weapons."

Redacting Nuclear Truth

At the time, Able Archer 83 marked the culmination of one of the Cold War's most volatile years. The NATO drill, held in November 1983, departed sharply from previous exercises by introducing unusually realistic features: new coded communications, silent periods resembling wartime protocols, the simulated transition to nuclear release authority, and the relocation of NATO command elements to alternate war headquarters.

These changes, along with the broader geopolitical climate, including the KAL-007 shootdown, Reagan’s confrontational rhetoric, and the Soviet KGB’s Operation RYaN, which was actively watching for signs of a surprise US first strike, led Soviet intelligence to misread the exercise as a potential cover for an actual attack.

Declassified records show that Soviet air units in Eastern Europe were placed on heightened alert, with some reportedly preparing nuclear-capable aircraft for potential use.

Those details are no longer publicly accessible. The updated release now contains only a short note acknowledging that the 15 pages have been redacted.

A State Department spokesperson declined to clarify the reason for the removal and told the newspaper that "the department was not required to provide public notice."

Manufacturing Historical Memory

The unexpected censorship has raised questions among historians and analysts who argue that removing material related to one of the closest nuclear near-misses in history fits a long-standing pattern in how Washington shapes the public memory of the Cold War.

For decades, US political culture relied heavily on the narrative of a permanent Soviet threat, an atmosphere cultivated through the Red Scare, McCarthy-era purges, loyalty programs, and the systematic demonization of communism.

These narratives helped justify expansive US global interventions, from Latin America to the Middle East, which were frequently framed as defensive actions against communism despite being driven by strategic interests such as access to resources, geopolitical influence, and maintaining cheap labor markets abroad.

Critics note that while Washington often portrayed itself as a stabilizing force confronting Soviet aggression, declassified archives from Iran, Guatemala, Chile, and other countries show that many US operations abroad resulted in destabilization, repression, and long-term harm to civilian populations.

The quiet removal of previously published material on Able Archer is therefore viewed by some as part of a broader reluctance to acknowledge episodes that challenge the official portrayal of US conduct during the Cold War, particularly episodes that reveal how US and NATO military actions contributed to moments of acute global danger.

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