On 1 September 1983 , the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 , a Boeing 747 with 269 people aboard , including sitting Congressman Larry McDonald , an action which Reagan characterized as a " massacre " . The airliner had violated Soviet airspace just past the west coast of Sakhalin Island near Moneron Island , and the Soviets treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. spy plane . The incident increased support for military deployment , overseen by Reagan , which stood in place until the later accords between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev . The Able Archer 83 exercise in November 1983 , a realistic simulation of a coordinated NATO nuclear release , was perhaps the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis , as the Soviet leadership feared that a nuclear attack might be imminent
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Cold War