1979-1985
The new aggravation occurred in 1979 in connection with the introduction of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, which the West saw as a violation of geopolitical balance and the transition of the USSR to the policy of expansion. Aggravation peaked in autumn 1983, when the Soviet air defense forces shot down a South Korean civilian airliner, carrying, according to media reports, there were about 300 people. That was when U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
In 1983 the U.S. stationed in West Germany, Britain, Denmark, Belgium and Italy, medium range ballistic missiles "Pershing-2" in reaching is 5-7 minutes away from the goals in the European USSR and cruise missiles, air-based. At the same time in 1981 in the United States began production of neutron weapons - artillery shells and warheads, short-range missiles "Lance". Analysts have assumed that these weapons could be used to reflect the occurrence of Warsaw Pact troops in Central Europe. The U.S. has also begun to develop a program for space missile defense system (the so-called Star Wars program), both of these large-scale programs is extremely disturbed the Soviet leadership, especially that of the USSR, with great difficulty and stress for the economy to support strategic nuclear parity, there were no funds for adequate resistance in the cosmos.
In response, in November 1983, the Soviet Union out of the talks held in Geneva on Euromissiles. General Secretary Yuri Andropov, declared that the USSR will undertake a series of countermeasures: deploy tactical missile-carrying nuclear weapons on the territory of East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and push the Soviet nuclear submarines closer to the coast of the United States. In 1983-1986. Soviet nuclear forces and the system of missile warning in a state of alert.
According to available data, in 1981 the Soviet intelligence service (KGB and GRU) began "Operation of a nuclear attack" (Operation RYaN) - to monitor the possible development of NATO countries to the top of a limited nuclear war in Europe. The anxieties of the Soviet leadership led NATO exercise «Able archer 83" - in the Soviet Union feared that under the guise of NATO is preparing to launch Euromissiles on targets in the Warsaw Pact. Similarly, in 1983-1986. NATO military analysts feared that the Soviet Union cause a pre-emptive "disarming" blow by geographic location Euromissiles.