All language subtitles for Secrets.and.Spies.A.Nuclear.Game.S01E01.Paranoia.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music playing]

[Raymond Asquith] The listeners,
as they were, the KGB,

who had all
the surveillance equipment,

lived on the floor above us
in Moscow.

And you knew they were there.

On the whole,
one just endured it.

I mean, I remember my wife
and I had some kind of argument

about where we're gonna take
the children

for a weekend picnic.

In a rather unmanly way,

I sort of addressed the ceiling
and said,

"Well, you up there,
which did we agree?"

And to my amazement,
within about two or three hours,

somebody had slipped in a note
under our front door saying,

"Well, you had agreed on
Koskovo, or Timiryazev..."
or whatever it was.

Anyway, some picnic place.

And I thought that was
a KGB surveillant

who had a good sense of humor,
actually.

[crowds cheering]

[narrator] This is the unseen
story of the Cold War.

Fought not by politicians...

but by secret agents.

[Jack Barsky] There was complete
misunderstanding

on either side.

It's very difficult
to determine

whom you can trust.

[narrator] As the Soviet Union
faces off with the West

in the early 1980s...

two spies play a dangerous game
from the shadows.

They seek to win the upper hand

while the world stands
on the brink of nuclear war.

These are their stories

in their own words.

Testimony pieced together from
interviews over the years.

[Oleg Gordievsky]
After 11 years of secret work,

maybe I develop paranoia.

[narrator] ...and never-before-
heard recordings...

[Aldrich Ames, on recording]

[narrator] ...that reveal
the deadly intrigues

at the heart of the battle
between East and West.

[Alexander Vassiliev]
Look, this is a war.

A secret war.

[dramatic music playing]

[menacing music playing]

[Marina Litvinenko]
1982 was a time

when people in Soviet Union
still believe

reality of nuclear war.

Confrontation between
West and East

was very serious.

Sometimes, it was not only
iron curtains,

it was like an iron sphere.

[narrator] This is a dangerous
moment for the Soviet Union,

almost 40 years
into the Cold War.

Their economy is overstretched,

the military entrenched
in Afghanistan,

and support for communism
in decline.

The Soviet leadership,
led by Leonid Brezhnev,

stockpiles nuclear arms
in a show of strength

against the West.

But there's a much subtler
weapon too.

Secret intelligence.

Yuri Andropov is the head

of the Soviet
Intelligence Service,

the KGB.

The KGB have been running
the Russian life for years.

Andropov was getting
more and more convinced

of the menacing West.

He was a full-blown KGB person

who thought that it's either
us or them.

And basically,
it better be them.

[Tim Naftali]
Yuri Andropov concludes

that the superpowers
are on the verge

of a nuclear war.

And so he begins a process
of collecting information

that would be indicators
of the approach of nuclear war.

[narrator]
This running tally of signs

is called Operation RYAN.

And every time Andropov
gets new intelligence,

he takes note.

[Nina] There is a chart
for "Americans said this,"

and "the Brits said that."

"Somebody was caught here."

And, "the plane crossed
that border."

And I think in Andropov's mind,

he was absolutely convinced
nuclear confrontation is coming.

[narrator]
Once his chart is full,

Andropov is convinced
the Soviet Union should strike.

And so he uses every resource

to keep close watch
on his adversaries.

[Marina]
Oleg Gordievsky

was a very high-qualificated
intelligence officer.

He was born in a family
working for KGB.

His brother working for KGB.

[knock on door]

I think he was a good example

of Soviet Intelligence Service.

Soviet Union always keen
to put agents

all around the world.

[door opens]

[narrator] In 1982,

the KGB sends Gordievsky
to the U.K.,

disguising his identity
as a Soviet diplomat.

His posting comes
at a tense time.

Relations between East and West
are at a knife's edge.

[Tim] In December of 1979,

the Soviets had invaded
Afghanistan.

Soviet allies in Central America
were making gains in Nicaragua,

and were trying to make gains
in El Salvador.

Meanwhile, in Africa,

Soviet allies were fighting
in Angola

and were making new friends

in other parts
of Sub-Saharan Africa.

This picture seemed
to contradict Soviet commitment

to better relations
with the United States.

Why are they behaving this way?

If they really want
better relations with us,

why are they on the march

in what was then called
the Third World,

but we now call
the Global South?

[narrator]
There's a political standoff,

and neither side shows
any signs of backing down.

[Ken Adelman] The Cold War
was a view of the world

where you had a communist
totalitarian empire

run out of Moscow,

and Western countries

led by the United States

but including Western Europe
and Britain,

facing off against each other.

You have the Soviet Union,

which is at this point
a dominant superpower,

a nuclear leader,

neck and neck
with the United States

in terms of innovation
and development.

But at the core,
their ideologies, as we know,

are completely different.

Democracy versus communism.

[narrator] What began
as an ideological conflict

has escalated into a terrifying
nuclear arms race,

and neither side
wants to appear weak.

The Soviet Union had something
like 33,000 nuclear weapons.

We had something like 22,000.

Way too many
and way too scary.

[crowd cheering]

[reporter speaking Russian]

[Tim, in English] The Cold War
was an existential struggle

over the future
of world civilization.

And this is what makes this
moment in history so dangerous,

is you have both sides
completely misunderstanding

both the power
of their adversary

and the intentions
of their adversary.

[dramatic music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] As a staunch
anti-communist,

Ronald Reagan crusades
against everything

the Soviet Union stands for.

And he's not alone.

[news reporter] President
Reagan's vast limousine

has just drawn up here
outside the Norman Porch,

having come
from Buckingham Palace.

This is going
to be the first time

that an American president
has addressed

both Houses of Parliament
here in Westminster.

[Ken] Ronald Reagan
met Maggie Thatcher,

and was amazed
that they thought alike.

Prime Minister Thatcher
really did,

despite her uptight bearing
and her hairdo,

really loved to be
with Ronald Reagan.

There was a certain magnetism.

There was a certain glory
to him.

And she felt that tingling.

[applause]

[Reagan]
My Lord Chancellor,

speaking for all Americans,

I want to say
how very much at home

we feel in your house.

[Ken] Ronald Reagan said
that Soviet communism

will lie, cheat and steal

to advance its mission
around the world.

That was the idea
that Ronald Reagan had

to delegitimize
the Soviet Union.

The decay of the Soviet
experiment

should come
as no surprise to us.

We see totalitarian forces
in the world

who seeks subversion
and conflict around the globe

to further their barbarous
assault on the human spirit.

[Ken]
Even before he became president,

Ronald Reagan said,

"The Cold War will end,

and I know how it's gonna end.

We win, and they lose."

[narrator] And he's about
to ramp up the rhetoric

even further.

The march of freedom
and democracy

will leave Marxism/Leninism
on the ash heap of history,

as it has left other tyrannies
which stifle the freedom

and muzzle the self-expression
of the people.

[applause]

[Tim] Ronald Reagan
is rallying the troops.

He's rallying the NATO alliance,

trying to send a signal

that the United States should
be respected and even feared.

The America of the 1970s,

which was licking its wounds
after losing the Vietnam War,

that's over.

We're back, we're strong,

and we should be feared.

Making America great again,
if you will.

We're gonna win.

In the end,
we will outlast them.

[Ken]
People like me, hard-liners,

thought that was terrific.

Most of the people
in attendance of the speech

didn't think
it was terrific at all.

Why? Because he was too radical.

And it did cause a reaction
in the Soviet Union.

[Nina]
That speech, it was offensive.

And it was actually offensive
to a lot of people.

A lot of people
I remember saying,

"Well, who the hell are you

to tell us that we are
in the heap of history?"

[Tim] That fed into the sense
in Moscow

that Ronald Reagan was a cowboy,

and that he intended
to use nuclear weapons

against the Soviet Union

in a war that is really fought
psychologically.

Think about how dangerous
that is.

[narrator] Closer cooperation
between the U.K. and the U.S.

is exactly what Andropov fears.

And in this Cold War,

Andropov looks to his agents
for proof.

[Ken] What intelligence did
in those days

were they gave us details
of the overall picture.

We could follow the number

of intercontinental
ballistic missiles

that they had deployed.

We could follow the number
of new submarines.

We could follow the number
of new tanks.

We could follow
all these things

that you could see
from the satellite.

And we could hear
about rumblings

from Poland, or Czechoslovakia,
or Hungary, or Bulgaria,

or the Soviet Union to Russia.

[Raymond] This is very typical
of my wife and my aunt

eating ice cream in the snow

outside the Bolshoi Theatre.

I was head of SIS station

in Moscow in early 1980s.

Civil servants
are all signatories

of the Official Secrets Act.

And what's not
in the public domain

is rarely not
for discussion by us.

Our station in Moscow
was quite a small one.

The whole apparatus
of control and surveillance

was very sophisticated.
I mean, they used to paint

radioactive paint on the bottom
of our cars, you know,

in order to track us.

We were thin on the ground,
really.

It was extremely hard
for outsiders to discover

anything significant about
the Soviet political intentions.

[indistinct radio chatter]

[narrator] While British agents
seek a foothold in Moscow,

in London, Oleg Gordievsky
joins his fellow spies.

[Alexander] London was one
of the major cities

where Soviet espionage
was going on.

The KGB quarters in London,
it's called a station.

KGB Station.

It's located
in the Russian Embassy.

That London job
was extremely advantageous

for Gordievsky.

It means that he was trusted,

and that he was
a decent operative,

and it was good for him.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
At the KGB station in London,

there are two agents
above Gordievsky

in the hierarchy.

One of them is the KGB
station chief, Arkady Guk.

[Alexander]
Gordievsky was supposed to spend

most of his time, 9:00 to 5:00,
in the embassy

doing his official job,

being a diplomat.

And then,

during the evening
or on weekends,

he became a spy.

The job was to get
British secrets,

especially secrets concerning
Britain's foreign policy.

[narrator]
Gordievsky is under pressure

to send intelligence to Moscow

that validates Operation RYAN.

At the same time,

he's had to hide the fact
that he is a KGB spy

from the British.

In their eyes,
he's just a diplomat.

If he blows his cover

or fails to feed
the Soviet leadership

with good intel,

he'll be on the next plane
to Moscow.

[Alexander] It was a very bold
career move for Gordievsky.

But the British
counterintelligence service,

MI5, is considered one of
the most professional services

in the world.

So I'm pretty sure he knew

that it wouldn't
be a picnic for him.

[Lord Robin Butler] Well, I've
got various newspaper cuttings,

but also photos with Mrs. T.

Margaret Thatcher
was uncompromising

in her dislike of socialism
and of communism.

And that is what drove her.

I look so young and innocent.

My job was really to make sure

that 10 Downing Street
worked well

for the prime minister.

Yes, okay, certainly.

Margot!

[narrator]
Margaret Thatcher knows

that it's not just politics

that dictates the key moves
in the Cold War.

[Lord Robin] Margaret Thatcher
was fascinated by intelligence.

Part of it was the glamor.

But also, she liked to collect
as much information as possible,

and intelligence
was one of the sources.

[indistinct chattering]

There was a special box
in Number 10

in which there would have been
regular reports

of anything which became known

about Soviet activity
in the U.K.

[narrator]
MI6 has a very big secret

they are keeping
from the prime minister.

[narrator]
But he isn't just a KGB spy

pretending to be
a Soviet diplomat.

[narrator]
Oleg Gordievsky

is a double agent.

[narrator]
In the '60s and '70s,

Gordievsky was based in Denmark

as a loyal and dependable
KGB agent.

And it's there that he begins
to see things

in a different light.

[Tim] The turning point for him

was the Soviet decision

to crush the Prague Spring.

An attempt at liberalizing
the Soviet-style regime

in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Gordievsky has had an internal
personal shift.

He recognizes the inherent
repressiveness

of the Soviet system
which, as a KGB officer,

he's sworn to defend.

This is an ideological decision
for him.

[Baroness Meta Ramsay]
There are some things

that I really cannot go into.

I know you'll understand

the nature of what
we're talking about.

When Oleg arrived in London
in 1982,

it was invaluable

to have the views
of an insider

in the Russian Embassy
in London

who knew the meaning of
everything that was happening.

[narrator] Only eight people
in the country

know about this
highly sensitive operation

at a highly sensitive time.

[Baroness Meta] It would be
very, very few people anywhere

who knew about Oleg.

You don't want anybody
at any stage

to betray the source,

because accidents happen.

Usually, things are very,
very carefully contained.

Only people who need to know.

That's a great principle,
"need to know."

You have to keep
completely tight

to a very few people.

[announcer] A specially extended
Nine O'Clock News

with Michael Buerk.

[Buerk]
President Brezhnev,

ruler of Russia
for nearly two decades,

is dead.

For the Soviet people tonight,

five days of mourning begin.

For the leaders who've grown
old in his shadow,

the chance of ultimate power.

Who will take over?

[news anchor] Administration
officials said there will be

no change in U.S. foreign
policy toward the Soviets

until there is a change
in Soviet policy.

[narrator] The Soviet Union
finds Reagan's aggressive tone

not just insulting,
but an existential threat.

Right now, the last thing
the Communist Party wants

is to be seen as weak.

So it decides
to promote someone

with a very clear agenda.

[news anchor] One advisor called
front-runner Yuri Andropov

a hard-line man who would
be tough to deal with.

[somber music playing]

[narrator] Just two days
after Leonid Brezhnev's death,

the head of the KGB,

hard-liner Yuri Andropov,

is promoted to the top job.

[Nina] Andropov was quite
a terrifying man.

He came out of the apparatus
of control,

and he then ran the Soviet Union

as a very controlled
environment.

[news anchor] Tomorrow,
Vice President Bush arrives.

Also, Secretary of State
Shultz.

Bush's visit is intended
as a gesture of conciliation

according
to Western diplomats here.

These diplomats worry that

new Communist Party chief
Yuri Andropov

may have had to pledge
a tough anti-Washington line

and big weapons buildup

to win military support.

They would like
the American delegation

to meet with Andropov
after the funeral Monday,

but have no assurance
the meeting will be arranged.

[Susan Eisenhower]
Here was a guy who came out

of the Soviet Intelligence
Community.

You had the feeling
during Andropov's period

that, you know,
things were really inert,

and the old generation
was still running the country.

[Nina]
My family was simply terrified.

My great-grandfather
was Khrushchev.

He was the General Secretary

of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev dismantled,
or as much as he could,

he dismantled the KGB
after Stalin's death.

So Andropov,
as my mother was convinced,

was going to come back at us
and the family with a vengeance.

And, you know,
there was even a talk

that the Gulags
are going to be reinstated.

He is going to push forward
certain policies,

including international
policies.

[narrator]
As leader of the Soviet Union,

Andropov takes
his Operation RYAN charts

from the KGB back rooms
to the heart of Soviet policy.

[Tim] Yuri Andropov is a very
conspiratorial figure.

He is convinced
that the United States

is seeking domination
over the Soviets,

and ultimately
a nuclear victory.

[Nina] And so the Soviet Union
has to be completely

and utterly prepared
to push that button.

[narrator]
All eyes are now on Reagan

in this uncharted
new landscape.

[Nina]
Reagan was adamant

that he's not going to deal
with those Red bastards.

[dramatic music playing]

And for Andropov,

Reagan was that cowboy

who is going to destroy
the Soviet Union

because he was playing in
all these films like John Wayne.

Reagan and Andropov
in some ways found each other.

Neither of them
would back off.

This was the moment
when we were really scared

of the nuclear war.

That really stayed with me

as the scariest time
that I've ever experienced

in my life in the Soviet Union.

[narrator] The opposing sides
in the Cold War

could not be further apart.

Britain's double agent
is now vital

to understanding the level
of Andropov's paranoia.

[Sir David Omand]
He's got access

to the operations being run

against the United Kingdom

by intelligence officers
in the embassy.

And he's got a knowledge
of the politics of Moscow.

Gordievsky, of course,

was able to brief his handlers
on the dossier.

He knows a lot of people
in the system,

and therefore he's got
this unrivaled insight

into how decisions are taken,

how they think

in the senior reaches
of the politburo.

He would be able
to leave the embassy

on a regular basis

and to a safe house,

where he would be debriefed.

And if he could smuggle
documents out of the embassy,

so much the better.

There'd be arrangements
for copying those

in the safe house.

[narrator] Gordievsky's actions
make him so valuable,

MI6 decides to inform
10 Downing Street.

In December 1982,

Margaret Thatcher is told
that a highly placed KGB spy

now works as a double agent
for the British.

But she isn't told his name.

Two months later,
Gordievsky provides

crucial intelligence.

Operation RYAN
is now official Soviet policy.

[Tim] What the Soviets
didn't understand

is that there was a possibility

that Operation RYAN could be
a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Operation RYAN
was a perfect example

of starting with a conclusion,

and then looking
for justification

for that conclusion.

Agents weren't asked,

"Are the American
and the British

on the verge of nuclear war?"

They were asked,
"Prove to us,

find the evidence that they are
so that we'll be ready for it."

And that was the fundamental
flaw with Operation RYAN.

[Baroness Meta] What Oleg
Gordievsky really brought

was an inside understanding

of what Operation RYAN
was really about.

It was showing a paranoia.

But the paranoia was real.

When two sides
don't know one another,

they both misread signs.

You can see how dreadful things
can happen

by that kind
of misunderstanding.

[narrator]
Gordievsky's intel

on the deepening
Soviet paranoia

is so vital to the British

that they must conceal
their source

even from the Americans.

[Tim] The reason the British
did not want the Americans

to know who Gordievsky was

was the more people
who know the name of a source,

the more imperiled
the source becomes.

[narrator]
Reagan doesn't have the luxury

of the Brits' inside knowledge.

He feels the most
effective approach

is to scare the Soviets
into backing down.

He takes a brazen
and terrifying new stance.

[dramatic music playing]

[man]
Ladies and gentlemen,

the president
of the United States,

Ronald Reagan.

[applause]

[Ken] In 1983,
I was arms control director.

Thank you.

[Ken]
Ronald Reagan gives his speech

before the evangelicals,
of all people...

saying that the Soviet Union
is the evil empire.

The focus of evil
in the modern world.

The Soviet leaders have openly
and publicly declared

that the only morality
they recognize

is that which will further
their cause,

which is world revolution.

[applause]

[Ken]
Ronald Reagan felt

that there was a tendency
in the world

to equate the two sides.

They're both to be blamed
for the Cold War.

They're both to be blamed
for all these nuclear weapons.

There's a moral equivalence
between the two.

Ronald Reagan was saying,
"There's no moral equivalence."

Let us pray for the salvation

of all of those who live
in that totalitarian darkness.

They are the focus of evil
in the modern world.

[applause]

[Ken]
And everybody's aghast

at how provocative this was

and how inflammatory this was.

People worried that this cowboy
from the West

was irresponsible,

and he could blow us all up.

[applause continuous]

[narrator] Reagan's approach
is to aggressively arm Europe

as a way to force
the Soviets to back down.

The whole idea of whether you
were tough or soft on communism

was still very much part
of our political landscape.

He decided to assure

the right wing
of the Republican Party

that he was tough on communism.

And I was dismayed,
because what is the strategy

to call somebody, you know,
the global center of evil?

If you insult people publicly,

you'll have a hard time
getting cooperation out of them.

[narrator] Reagan also promotes
a defense system

nicknamed Star Wars.

These space lasers
would identify and prevent

incoming nuclear missiles.

Its critics ridicule it
as unrealistic.

But the prospect of taking
the nuclear arms race to space

terrifies Andropov.

[Ken] There's the idea
that we need to be very strong.

The only way to deter
the Soviet Union

from any kind of aggression

is to show them that they
cannot win in anything.

Second thing that was going on

was that we're going to increase
our defense spending

quite a bit,

and the Soviet Union
can't do that.

They can't keep up with us.

So we're gonna spend them
into oblivion.

[narrator] As Reagan
ramps up his rhetoric,

a drama unfolds on the other
side of the world

that threatens to push
the Cold War

over the edge.

Governments around the world
have expressed indignation

over the Soviet Union's action

in shooting down a Korean
jumbo jet

over the Western Pacific.

The U.N. Security Council

will take up that incident
later today.

That tragedy later today.

It's now reported
that at least 50

of the 269 people on that jet
were Americans.

The search goes on
for the plane's wreckage.

[reporter]
The crisis over Flight 007.

Just about half were Korean,
Japanese and Taiwanese.

[crying]

The free world was outraged.

[sobbing]

For once, it's no exaggeration
to say that Western governments

have been stunned
and even a little frightened.

[Ken]
Once the news comes

that a Soviet had shot down
the Korean airliner,

Ronald Reagan immediately
goes on national television

and uses every dirty word
for their behavior

that he can find
in the thesaurus.

What can be said
about Soviet credibility

when they so flagrantly lie

about such a heinous act?

The Soviet Union becomes
very defensive, very quiet,

and makes no apologies at all.

[reporter]
The military in Moscow explain,

"The Korean jumbo was spying,

so our missiles
brought it down."

What is this all about,
gentlemen?

[man] Hi.

My name's Robert Reynolds
from Cable News Network.

-Yes?
-Wondering if you would be

having any type
of statement, or...

-Not at the moment.
-...anything to say

about the Korean airliner?

Nothing? Expect one soon?

[Ken] So that drove people
in the West,

especially conservatives
like me, to think,

"Boy, they are even worse
than we thought they were."

The incident raises
the frightening thought

that the finger on the Soviet
nuclear trigger

could be as unstable
as the individual

who gave the order to shoot down
the Korean airliner.

[narrator] It sparks protest
and condemnation

around the world.

[crowd shouting]

[Susan] I mean, there was really
significant fear

that this was going to lead
to something, you know, big.

And extremely,
extremely dangerous.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
In late 1983,

peace hands in the balance
between the East and the West.

In a bid to be ready
for a Soviet nuclear attack,

the West launches
Able Archer.

It's an annual
military operation,

but this year's exercise
is more realistic than before.

Forty thousand U.S.
and NATO troops

gather across Europe,
right on the U.S.S.R.'s border.

[Ken]
Able Archer was a normal

military exercise
by NATO command...

to prepare NATO forces
in Europe...

for an attack
from the Soviet Union.

But the way it was done
was not normal at all.

The nuclear component
of the exercise

was hyped up.

[indistinct radio chatter]

The idea of it was,

make this as realistic
as you could possibly make it.

[narrator]
The Western powers show

an almost naive ignorance

of how this huge training
exercise will be received

in the U.S.S.R.

For Andropov,

it looks like
his Operation RYAN prophecy

is coming true.

[indistinct radio chatter]

[Bianna] And it came at a very
sensitive moment for Moscow,

that it had been humiliated
on the global stage

following the downing
of that jet in particular.

So every move was interpreted

probably to a larger degree
than it should have.

[narrator] B-52 bombers
with nuclear capabilities

now arrive at the U.S. air base
in Germany.

Andropov watches
everything unfold

from his hospital bed.

The Soviet people
are unaware

of their leader's
declining health,

as he keeps his hands
firmly on the reins of power.

[Nina] Andropov is dying,

but he is clutching
that red button.

He really thinks
if it's not him, who else?

He is in charge.

[narrator] The Soviets
scramble to respond.

Nuclear submarines
are primed and ready.

Soviet troops are put
on a 15-minute combat standby.

[Bianna] Oleg Gordievsky
probably was the one person

who could convey
to Western sources

what was going on inside
the mind of Soviet leadership

at the time of Able Archer.

Gordievsky helps
his handlers realize

that they're dealing
with sheer paranoia

at the hands
of the top leadership

in the Soviet Union.

Now unfortunately,
it didn't come in time enough

for this exercise
to be canceled.

[narrator]
The exercise continues,

oblivious that a nuclear
confrontation

is now just a phone call away.

[Susan]
Oh, it is a game, but, I mean,

but it's not a game too.

And I think what happened

is that everything
got out of control.

This is just something
that people can't comprehend,

that a human error could bring
the end of the world.

People just can't absorb that.

[Nina] Ultimately,
you kind of have this mendacity.

You believe in your own
propaganda

of your own greatness.

You're in the control
of the state.

[suspenseful music playing]

All Russian
and Soviet dictators,

their problem
is they always think

that they're the last line
of defense.

You are in power.

You have the right to,
if you decide,

to destroy it so nobody else
will get it.

The United States
doesn't even notice

that the Soviets are on edge.

They didn't even
put the Soviet reaction

into Ronald Reagan's
presidential daily brief.

[indistinct radio chatter]

[narrator]
Before Andropov can act,

the Able Archer operation
wraps up on schedule.

[pilot] Roger that.

[narrator]
Andropov is finally persuaded

that this really was
just an exercise.

This time.

[Tim]
The United States didn't know

to ratchet down the tension
when it really mattered.

That is an indicator of just
the lack of understanding

that the United States and the
Soviet Union had of each other.

But in a nuclear confrontation,

lack of understanding can have
catastrophic consequences

when adversaries have nuclear
weapons pointed at each other

and don't understand each other.