Episode 29: 1983: The World’s Most Dangerous Year

Episode 29 of the 18th Airborne Corps Podcast tells the wildest story many have never fully hears. A series of otherwise unrelated events culminated to make 1983 the most dangerous year the world has ever known, with the United States and the Soviet Union even closer to war than during the much more well-known events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. A sequence of accidents (to include the tragic shoot-down of a Korean airliner by the Soviet Union) and misunderstandings (i.e. the Soviet belief that a NATO command post exercise was a massing for a strike onto the Soviet Union), put both Soviet and American nuclear forces on high alert. Host Joe Buccino is joined by the Washington Post’s Nate Jones, who worked with the US government to declassify many of the documents related to this period. Nate unspools this bizarre, terrifying story with details many have never heard before. The XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters releases new episodes of the 18th Airborne Corps podcast every Tuesday and Thursday. The show offers insight and wisdom for Army leaders from history, current events, or future technology. If you have a suggestion for the show, please reach out at [email protected].