The_Info_Web/70 - DISPATCHES/2026-10-12 See Appendix A.md

title	date	status	summary	entities	tags
See Appendix A	2026-10-12	published	The State Department published Lieutenant General Leonard Perroots's Able Archer memorandum in 2021, and after the CIA won the right to withhold it, the volume was republished fourteen pages shorter.	National Security Archive Leonard Perroots Able Archer 83 Central Intelligence Agency President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Defense Intelligence Agency	AbleArcher FRUS FOIA ColdWar

See Appendix A

In February 2021 the U.S. Department of State published Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988, Volume IV, Soviet Union, January 1983-March 1985. Its preface stated that the volume "presents selective documentation related to the 1983 Soviet 'War Scare' and the November 1983 NATO nuclear exercise, Able Archer (see Appendix A)." Appendix A, an editorial note running from page 1420, described the 1990 President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board report "The Soviet 'War Scare'" and then printed the January 1989 "End of Tour Report Addendum" of Lieutenant General Leonard Perroots, who had been the Air Force's intelligence chief in Europe during Able Archer 83. Perroots wrote that the exercise began on the morning of November 3, 1983, and that at 2100Z on November 4 the NSA issued report G/00/3083-83, "Soviet Air Forces, GSFG, Placed on Heightened Readiness, 2 November 1983." The appendix also printed a Central Intelligence Agency memorandum answering him and the PFIAB's finding that the officers in charge "acted correctly out of instinct, not informed guidance." The volume ran to 1,493 pages.¹

Six months later the National Security Archive asked the CIA for the memorandum under FOIA, and in October 2021 it sued. The CIA released a completely redacted copy. The district court granted the CIA summary judgment on October 4, 2022, and the D.C. Circuit affirmed on June 7, 2024, holding that the publication in the State Department volume had not waived the CIA's exemptions.²

The copy of the volume on the State Department's site captured on February 2, 2025 runs to 1,479 pages and does not contain the name Perroots. Its preface reads "the November 1983 NATO nuclear exercise, Able Archer (see Document 135)." The current copy is the same.³

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1. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988, Volume IV, Soviet Union, January 1983-March 1985 (2021), preface and Appendix A, pp. 1420-1435, PDF as captured March 18, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210318061535/https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1981-88v04/pdf/frus1981-88v04.pdf ↩︎

2. National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency, No. 23-5017 (D.C. Cir. June 7, 2024), affirming No. 1:21-cv-02857 (D.D.C. Oct. 4, 2022). https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2024/06/23-5017-2058350.pdf ↩︎

3. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981-1988, Volume IV, PDF as captured February 2, 2025, and as served October 12, 2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20250202104840/https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1981-88v04/pdf/frus1981-88v04.pdf and https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1981-88v04/pdf/frus1981-88v04.pdf ↩︎