Sam stared at her amazed. “If he’d gone through with it no one would be living inside Russia currently. The refugees alone would have swamped the rest of Europe. And we would have won the Cold War.”
“Exactly. Ronald Reagan tried to sell the plan to the Democratic Party whose members were broadly horrified at the prospect. He took the plan in secret to members of the Republican Party who helped him rise in the political ranks to eventually take Office as the President of the United States. He proved to be a very good President. Who would have believed his entire campaign was developed in secret by a group of men who wanted to elect a man with the tenacity to fund the Cassidy Project. To push through Congress a secret Bill to fund a project to enable them to initiate a first strike on the U.S.S.R. with no retaliation.
“It sounds like the project should have worked. The American people would never have gone for it, but the theory appears sound.”
“It was,” she confirmed.
“So what happened? How did we lose Robert Cassidy and his project?”
The Secretary of Defense crossed her arms. “Able Archer 83 happened.”
Chapter Sixty
“Who was Able Archer?” Sam asked.
“Not who, but what. Able Archer 83 was the code name for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercise that took place on November the Second, 1983. To this day it was the largest orchestrated movement of nuclear bombers in the world. Historians argue it was the closest the world came to a nuclear holocaust since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The Soviet Union was certain the exercise was a ruse for actual nuclear war, and prepared their own nuclear rockets for firing.”
“And what were we really doing?”
“Trying to find the Island, of course — before it was too late.”
“Reagan nearly took us to World War Three because of the Island?”
“No, he nearly took us to World War Three because Robert Cassidy and what he’d nearly finished building. Able Archer spanned Western Europe, centered on the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe known as SHAPE in Casteau, north of the city of Mons. Able Archer exercises simulated a period of conflict escalation, culminating in a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack. The exercise also introduced a new, unique format of coded communication, radio silences, and the participation of heads of government.”
“How could someone as intelligent as Reagan have misunderstood how risky such an exercise would have been?”
Margret shook her head even just remembering her first briefing on this bit of history when she became Secretary of Defense. “The realistic nature of the 1983 exercise, coupled with deteriorating relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, led some members of the Soviet military to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse of war, obscuring preparations for a genuine nuclear first strike. In response, the Soviets readied their nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert.”
“So, why did Reagan go ahead with it?”
“Because he had to — it was the only way to find Robert Cassidy. The Russians were right about Able Archer 83 being a ruse; only it wasn’t because we wanted to start a war, it was because we wanted to prevent one.”
“What do you mean?” Sam felt like he was being strung along in a massive conspiracy.
“Late August 1983 a U.S. Congressman from Georgia attended a clandestine meeting in New York at the express request of Robert Cassidy. A Soviet agent was sent there under the direct orders of Mikhail Gorbachev to meet with the Congressman to discuss a new weapon that threatened to end everything.” She paused and watched his reaction. “Robert Cassidy threatened both sides with sending either or both the American and Soviet countries back to the dark ages if they did not agree to a peaceful de-escalation and de-proliferation of nuclear weapons.”
“He treated them both like naughty children?” Sam laughed. “How did that meeting go?”
“Both sides were pissed,” she said. “It took time and Robert was persuasive. You have to remember, Cassidy may be a megalomaniac and he may be hell bent crazy on sending the world back to pre-electrical times, but there has never been a doubt that he was anything but a complete genius. From what we now understand Robert made some significant advancement towards de-escalation with this threat. Of course it was only the start. He’d convinced some relatively low key members from both sides of the Bearing Strait to agree, but now they had to return to their prospective Commanders and pass on the offer. The meeting was adjourned and a second meeting was set for September the fifteenth when the Congressman was set to return from a meeting in Seoul.”
Sam pushed forward. “What happened at the second meeting? Why did it fail?”
“There never was a second meeting,” she said.
“Why not?”
The Secretary of State took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Because on September 1, 1983 United States Congressman, Larry McDonald, a representative from Georgia, was on Korean Air Lines Flight 007 from New York to Seoul, via Anchorage, Alaska.”
Sam swore. “That Flight was shot down over the Sakhalin Island, wasn’t it? I was only a kid, but I remember how angry my father had gotten. He was certain the Soviet Union was responsible.”
“Yes.”
“Do we know why?” he asked.
“To this day, we believe the Soviets genuinely believed it was a spy plane. We know a Soviet Su-15 interceptor, near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan, shot it down under the auspice of Flight 007 flying through Soviet prohibited airspace. What we don’t know is whether Konstantin Chernenko, who was already becoming concerned that Mikhail Gorbachev couldn’t be trusted, had planned the attack after discovering Mikhail Gorbachev had sent one of his own men to have a secret meeting with Congressman Larry McDonald. And what Robert Cassidy couldn’t work out was whether the attack was perpetrated by the U.S. or the U.S.S.R — either way, he decided it was the final sign, he needed to disappear so he could finish what he started.”
“He wants to send America and Russia into the Dark Ages?” Sam asked.
“No. He wants to send the entire planet into the dark ages. He wants to return us to the days of Eden when we were simple hunter gatherers. He thought he was working towards resetting the world to the way it was before electricity. He was a devoutly Christian man, who followed the Old Testament implicitly. He had originally become a scientist to challenge religion, but instead found the Old Testament to have all the answers. Why not send the entire world back to the dark ages — to a time without digital money, without computers, to an Eden where man simply had to work to gather food and live with nature?”
“And we let him get away?”
“Ronald Reagan was his greatest advocate, but after Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down, Robert Cassidy disappeared. In an attempt to locate the island before it was too late, Reagan authorized exercise Able Archer 83. It ended on November Eleven 1983 — and Robert Cassidy hasn’t been seen since.”
“So then what’s stopped Cassidy from completing his Project?”
“Power, he needs more power to produce the sort of energy he requires to create a large enough radio-wave to effect the Van Allen Belt and send the entire world into the Dark Ages.”
“What was he after?”
“He’s looking at something more powerful than a nuclear bomb — he needs to utilize a thing called a Higgs Boson particle. And to do that, he needed someone with access to the Large Hadron Collider. That’s why he took the passengers off the Antarctic Solace, he needed just one person from it who could build him what he wants.”