Bruce Blair, an expert on Cold War nuclear strategies and former president of the World Security Institute in Washington, D.C., says the American–Soviet relationship at that time had deteriorated to the point where the Soviet Union as a system—not just the Kremlin, not just Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, not just the KGB—but as a system, was geared to expect an attack and to retaliate very quickly to it.
Bruce Blair, odborník na Studenou válku, jaderné strategie a bývalý prezident World Security Institute ve Washingtonu prohlásil: Americko–sovětské vztahy se v té době se zhoršily do bodu, kdy nejen Kreml, nejen Jurij Andropov a KGB, ale celý Sovětský svaz jako systém byl zaměřen na očekávaný útok a na velmi rychlou odvetu.