Lars Lichtenfeld is the author of the Cold War thriller Able Archer.  Inspired by the actual events of September 26, 1983, Able Archer takes the reader back to a time when the world was divided by two competing ideologies, governed by paranoia and fear.  Leaders vied for loyalty and military superiority, financing proxy wars and stocking their allies with weapons.  

From a hospital bed in the Moscow Central Hospital, Yuri Andropov - the former head of the KGB, rules a deteriorating empire.  Struggling to keep pace with American President Ronald Reagan's military investments, the Soviet Union finds itself technologically losing step.  Adding to Andropov's paranoia is the nagging reality that hard-line communism is beginning to show signs of failure.

We had beaten the Americans into space.  We were viewed by the world as the nation of science.  Countries had wrestled freedom away from their colonial masters and were coming to the Soviet Union for guidance.  Where had it all gone wrong?  Where had it changed?

