nuclear war

read about how "we all almost died" (from metafilter):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/shatter021099b.htm

One reason for Soviet jitters at the time was that the West had unleashed a series 

of psychological warfare exercises aimed at Moscow, including naval maneuvers 

into forward areas near Soviet strategic bastions, such as the submarine bases in

 the Barents Sea.



The 1983 alarm also came just weeks after Soviet pilots had shot down Korean 

Air Lines Flight 007 and just before the start of a NATO military exercise, known 

as Able Archer, that involved raising alert levels of U.S. nuclear forces in Europe 

to simulate preparations for an attack. Pry has described this exercise as "probably

 the single most dangerous incident of the early 1980s."

but wait, who was president in 1983? I thought he single handedly ended the cold war? He must have been working on other(okay one year later) things at the time?