Tens of millions would have been killed directly by the impact of those missiles on Western Europe and the United States. In turn, the massive nuclear arsenal of the U.S. would have blasted the Soviet Union back into the Stone Age.

这些导弹对西欧和美国的影响将直接导致数千万人丧生。反过来，美国庞大的核武库也会把苏联炸回石器时代。

Hundreds of millions around the world would have died from nuclear radiation and countless millions more as a result of the starvation and chaos of the subsequent ‘nuclear winter’.

世界上数以亿计的人将死于核辐射，还有无数的人死于随后的“核冬天”的饥饿和混乱。

On the evening of November 9, everything came to a head. At Mons, Nato commanders gave the pretend order to launch 350 nuclear weapons. In a bedroom in the Kuntsevo Clinic, a military aide sat beside Andropov with the cheget, poised to send out the nuclear launch codes. Soviet intelligence agencies, the KGB and the GRU, were frantically trying to get more information. ‘Flash’ telegrams were sent out to agents around the world seeking confirmation that Nato was preparing a surprise nuclear attack.

11月9日的晚上是紧要关头。在蒙斯，北约指挥官们模拟发射350枚核武器。在昆次伏诊所的卧室中，一名军事副官坐在安德罗波夫旁边，随时准备发送核发射码。苏联情报机构，克格勃和格勒乌，都在疯狂地试图获取更多的信息。“闪光”电报被发送给潜伏在世界各地的特工，再三确认北约是否准备突然发动核攻击。

When Oleg Gordievsky, the deputy head of the KGB residency in London (and secretly working for the British) got the request, he was baffled. He could see that life was carrying on as normal and thought the panic absurd.

当克格勃驻伦敦的副主任奥列格•戈迪耶夫斯基收到请求时，他感到很困惑。在他看来，生活照旧，他认为恐慌是荒谬的。

All the senior members of the Politburo had vivid memories of World War II and the savage destruction conflict could bring. Unless they absolutely had to, they did not want to push the nuclear button and bring down on a new generation of their people an even worse catastrophe.

政治局的所有高级官员都对第二次世界大战和战争带来的废墟记忆犹新。除非绝对有必要，否则他们不愿按下核按钮，让新一代人民遭受更大的灾难。

Whatever it was, they sat out that night, trembling, looking up into the dark sky as though trying to spot incoming missiles.

不管是什么原因，那天晚上他们坐在室外，战战兢兢地望着漆黑的天空，试图寻找飞来的导弹。

But when no alarm was received of enemy launches, they refrained from launching their own nuclear weapons. As dawn came up on another day, probably the most dangerous moment of the Cold War passed. The world had survived.

但是，因为没有收到敌方的警报，他们也就没有发射自己的核武器。随着黎明的到来，这个可能是冷战最危机的时刻终于过去了。世界幸免于难。

Only later was it realised how risky it had all been. A subsequent top-secret U.S. report for the President concluded that Able Archer ‘may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger’.

直到后来，人们才意识到这一切是多么的危险。随后，一份递送给美国总统的绝密报告总结说，“优秀射手”可能无意中使我们与苏联的关系一触即发”。

Robert Gates, then deputy director of the CIA, put it more starkly and terrifyingly: ‘We may have been at the brink of nuclear war and not even known it.’

时任美国中央情报局副局长的罗伯特•盖茨用更直白、更吓人的话说：“我们当时可能已经处于核战争的边缘，却毫不知情。”

英国每日邮报读者的评论：

JRobson, Blandford Forum - Free UK, United Kingdom, 6 minutes ago

Ain't that the swamp that Trump crawled out of?

这难道不是特朗普好不容易爬出来的沼泽吗？

yarmot, Stotfold, United Kingdom, 23 minutes ago

One Russian soldier refused to launch nuclear weapon. I think there was a movie made out of this.

一个俄罗斯士兵拒绝发射核武器。我记得有一部电影这样演的。

Jonny hennell, Lincoln, United Kingdom, about an hour ago

Oh look, it's the Able Archer story AGAIN !! First learnt about this in a Chanel 4 documentary over 10 years ago, keep up D.M. !

哦，看，这又是“优秀射手”的故事!! 10多年前，我就第一次在第4频道的纪录片中看到过这个。每日邮报继续哦。

JRobson, Blandford Forum - Free UK, United Kingdom, 9 minutes ago

The propaganda machine has to keep churning it out to keep successive generations scared of Mutually Assured Destruction.

宣传机器必须不停地炒旧料，这样以后几代人都会害怕同归于尽。

Drago Montenegrin, Podgorica, Montenegro, about an hour ago

Panicking Soviets you mean? That's like saying English while talking about British. There were 100 million of non Russian people in the Soviet Union.

你意思是吓唬苏联?那就跟用英语说英国一样。在苏联有1亿非俄罗斯人。

Rarkar, Winchester, United Kingdom, about an hour ago

It was an operator who wanted to hold back to check before launching a nuclear strike against the US. He saved the world and was sacked.

是一个操作员，在对美国发动核打击之前想要再三确认一下。他拯救了世界。

Wojtek, Warsaw, 1 hour ago

Better tell more about 9th Nov 1979 when US almost provoked huge war in Europe. This pathetic story about Brzezinski's wife doesn't tell that there was Europe-wide alarm in US and probably British air and maybe landforces. Many (or almost all) US squadrons in Europe took off incl. many planes equipped with nuclear weapons like B-52 and F-111 from Mildenhall, central GB. It came like a thunder from blue sky, all bigger exercises had to be then announced to the second party to avoid war. But US "exercises" from Nov 9th weren't announced. Russian side also keeps silence about their aerial and land response that day. It could be the end of the world we know.

最好多介绍一下1979年11月9日美国差点在欧洲挑起大战的情况。这个关于辛斯基妻子的悲惨故事并没有披露，在美国和英国的空军，也许还有陆军中，全欧洲的警报一直响起。在欧洲，许多(或几乎所有)美国空军中队都起飞了。许多飞机都配备了B-52和F-111这样的核武器。它就像晴天中的响雷一般出现。但11月9日的美国“演习”并未公开。俄罗斯方面也对当天的空中和地面反应保持沉默。那天本来会是我们的世界末日。

patriothardcorps, Hard Corps HQ, United Kingdom, 1 hour ago

Whoa, hang on, there's a 24 megaton hydrogen bomb in a swamp in North Carolina?

哇哦，等会儿，北卡罗来纳洲的沼泽里有2400万吨级当量的氢弹？