Office of the Historian

261. Talking Points Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency1

Washington, August 11, 1986

TALKING POINTS: Press Accounts of Soviet War Scare

On August 8, the Washington Post carried a front page account of a Soviet “war scare” in the early 1980’s derived from the debriefing of Oleg Gordievsky, KGB acting “rezident” in London prior to his defection to the UK in June 1985.2 That account may raise questions in Congress and other forums about the accuracy of the Post report, and what the US Intelligence Community knew at the time. [portion marking not declassified]

[10 paragraphs (55 lines) not declassified]

The essential point is that the war scare was not a military alert, nor did it ever result in specific Soviet military actions that threatened the national security interests of the US or its allies. The war scare is, however, an analytic issue that has prompted numerous memoranda, a SNIE, and on-going research in several components of the US Intelligence Community.3 Contrary to an aside in the Post’s report, we do judge that these Soviet actions suggest a great deal about their perceptions of the US, their intelligence apparatus and analysis, and the divisions of responsibilities within the Soviet security system. [portion marking not declassified]

  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Deputy Director for Intelligence, Job 91B00874R: O/DDI Files (1980–1988), Box 1, Folder 24: HPSCI Current Intell Briefing 12 Aug 86. Secret; [handling restriction not declassified].↩
  2. See Murrey Marder, “Defector Told of Soviet Alert,” Washington Post, August 8, 1986, p. A1. Documentation on Able Archer and the war scare is in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. IV, Soviet Union, January 1983–March 1985, Documents 134, 135, 221, and Appendix A.↩
  3. For SNIE 11–10–84/JX, May 18, 1984, see ibid., Document 221.↩