When I look at the accounts that have come out since then, as we learn more about Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov's rapid intuitive reasoning that makes no sense whatsoever, i.e. "a flat out guess" and how that guess lead to the Soviets averting an all-out first-strike nuclear launch ... which would have been countered by an overwhelming and automatic response from the US ... annihilating all life on the planet.
It wasn't just a one-time incident. There were PLENTY of other incidents that happened that fall!
You may not remember times such as the fall of 1983, but I know that I do. I remember that point in time very, very well ... it was a pivotal time for me ... it also was for you, whether you realized it or not!
The environment between the USA and USSR was so charged in the fall of 1983 that more incidents were going to happen and eventually, as we humans played Russian roulette long enough, we would have gotten lucky. Consider what we now have learned more about the Soviet's response to a simulated attack in Exercise Able Archer ...when I look back at those times, I am more and more and more convinced that the ONLY reason that we are alive today is PRAYER ... or the actions of Higher Power.
I believe that prayer [for our leaders] is extremely important. Of course, we can work to elect competent leaders but PRAYER for their wisdom is essential. We must pray that a higher power will provide the circumstances that lead to better outcomes. Prayers for leaders matter. Ronald Reagan was a superb leader, a man of immense intuition and deep complexities, certainly not the ignorant and passive President that some would like to portray. Most of all he was humble man who really listened, especially to his wife, and he was capable of making important, pragmatic shifts in policy in the light of new information. Not many have that capability -- we were blessed to have such a man as President during such a tumultuous time in history.
The Soviet's response to Able Archer is perhaps the best example of Reagan's simple and profound wisdom ... and the importance of prayer in setting up fortuitous circumstances that lead to the US just happening to come by game-changing information ... upon learning of the Soviet reaction to Able Archer 83 [which was completely counter to what NSA and DoD experts believed the Soviet "no-first-strike" reaction would be] by way of the double agent Oleg Gordievsky, a British SIS asset, President Reagan commented:
Indeed. Thinking about something like that made ALL of the difference. I do not believe we would be alive today if Reagan had not changed course. Eventually, we would have "gotten lucky" if we kept playing the same game. My only explanation for the luck that we had to survive multiple close calls, to get information from a double agent, to have the good fortune of a leader like Ronald Reagan who could stand up the security advisors and DoD analysts who were WRONG is PRAYER. Prayer is the ONLY reason that I have that explains how we survived long enough, until the Reagan Reversal [beginning in early 1984] got our nuclear policy back onto a slightly more sane and reasonable track.
That reversal paved the way for [listening more to Maggie Thatcher, less to his hawkish advisors and] working with Mikhail Gorbachev, encouraging Perestroika and Glasnost, silencing the hawks in his Administration who were still stuck fighting the Cold War the old way. When it came to helping Gorbachev and winning the Cold War in a different way, President Reagan was truly far out ahead of ALL the advisors in his Administration ... and I do not believe that would have been possible without the impact of prayer.
Back in the fall of of 1983, I believed in a Higher Power and things that I could not explain, could not understand, but still things that I KNEW. It's the same today. I believe in PRAYER! It's not about me. Of course, I am praying for you, but I do not really matter at all in this. I've already been taken care of. This is about YOU. I believe in prayer; I believe that YOUR prayers matter.
It wasn't just a one-time incident. There were PLENTY of other incidents that happened that fall!
You may not remember times such as the fall of 1983, but I know that I do. I remember that point in time very, very well ... it was a pivotal time for me ... it also was for you, whether you realized it or not!
The environment between the USA and USSR was so charged in the fall of 1983 that more incidents were going to happen and eventually, as we humans played Russian roulette long enough, we would have gotten lucky. Consider what we now have learned more about the Soviet's response to a simulated attack in Exercise Able Archer ...when I look back at those times, I am more and more and more convinced that the ONLY reason that we are alive today is PRAYER ... or the actions of Higher Power.
I believe that prayer [for our leaders] is extremely important. Of course, we can work to elect competent leaders but PRAYER for their wisdom is essential. We must pray that a higher power will provide the circumstances that lead to better outcomes. Prayers for leaders matter. Ronald Reagan was a superb leader, a man of immense intuition and deep complexities, certainly not the ignorant and passive President that some would like to portray. Most of all he was humble man who really listened, especially to his wife, and he was capable of making important, pragmatic shifts in policy in the light of new information. Not many have that capability -- we were blessed to have such a man as President during such a tumultuous time in history.
The Soviet's response to Able Archer is perhaps the best example of Reagan's simple and profound wisdom ... and the importance of prayer in setting up fortuitous circumstances that lead to the US just happening to come by game-changing information ... upon learning of the Soviet reaction to Able Archer 83 [which was completely counter to what NSA and DoD experts believed the Soviet "no-first-strike" reaction would be] by way of the double agent Oleg Gordievsky, a British SIS asset, President Reagan commented:
"I don't see how they could believe that—but THAT is something to think about."
Indeed. Thinking about something like that made ALL of the difference. I do not believe we would be alive today if Reagan had not changed course. Eventually, we would have "gotten lucky" if we kept playing the same game. My only explanation for the luck that we had to survive multiple close calls, to get information from a double agent, to have the good fortune of a leader like Ronald Reagan who could stand up the security advisors and DoD analysts who were WRONG is PRAYER. Prayer is the ONLY reason that I have that explains how we survived long enough, until the Reagan Reversal [beginning in early 1984] got our nuclear policy back onto a slightly more sane and reasonable track.
That reversal paved the way for [listening more to Maggie Thatcher, less to his hawkish advisors and] working with Mikhail Gorbachev, encouraging Perestroika and Glasnost, silencing the hawks in his Administration who were still stuck fighting the Cold War the old way. When it came to helping Gorbachev and winning the Cold War in a different way, President Reagan was truly far out ahead of ALL the advisors in his Administration ... and I do not believe that would have been possible without the impact of prayer.
Back in the fall of of 1983, I believed in a Higher Power and things that I could not explain, could not understand, but still things that I KNEW. It's the same today. I believe in PRAYER! It's not about me. Of course, I am praying for you, but I do not really matter at all in this. I've already been taken care of. This is about YOU. I believe in prayer; I believe that YOUR prayers matter.
