Did President Reagan pare back Able Archer? (Nov. 1983)

Yes, I think he did.

He heard the Soviets were genuinely worried. And he made an easy and confident decision as chief executive to pare back the extent to which political leaders would be involved in the exercise. And that may have made all the difference.

I'd like a couple of references. If this interests you and you'd like to jump in and help, please feel free. :)
 
I may be misremembering, but Reagan's change of heart came after Able Archer, with three major stops along the way:

1. Hearing after the exercises that the Soviets were so startled by Able Archer, they almost let fly with the nukes.

2. Viewing The Day After

3. 1 and 2 inspiring him to actually go to a meeting about nuclear weapons at the Pentagon; he left feeling shocked and disgusted.
 
I believe that a Soviet Officer that was working with the American Intel agency had warned them that the Soviet Leadership, both military and civilian, were completely alarmed by the Military Exercise that They had thought was a prelude to invasion that President Reagan possibly extended the hand of diplomacy towards the Soviet Union to DE-escalate the level of high tensions... maybe.
 
This Soviet officer may have been Gordievsky:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...294_1_missile-crisis-cuban-missile-cold-war/2

But by then, Gordievsky had begun to feed to skeptical contacts in British intelligence documents from Operation RYAN showing that Soviet leaders' war fears were genuine.

"There was incredulity at first. The British couldn't believe the Soviet leaders could think like this," recalls Gordievsky. "The Americans were even more disbelieving."

And it sounds like Reagan at least reduced his own role in the exercise:

Nonetheless, in part because Gordievsky's warnings were being passed on by British intelligence, the United States scaled back Able Archer, which initially foresaw a role-playing part for Reagan. Tensions gradually eased, though the CIA's Fischer has found the war scare had a second phase in East Germany as late as 1985-1986.
 
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