Meanwhile, it is necessary to figure it out, despite all the obvious inconsistencies. After all, the 1983 incident became a convenient pretext for Washington and its allies to unleash another paranoid-hysterical campaign against the USSR and contributed to the unity of the anti-Communist Bloc. President Ronald Reagan found another reason to confirm his earlier thesis about the USSR as an “evil empire,” a term he borrowed from the movie “Star Wars.” Part of the Soviet elite was so frightened by this Western propaganda attack that two years later these individuals voted with both hands for the coming to power of the favourite of our geopolitical rivals, Mikhail Gorbachev. Once again, it makes no sense to talk in detail about the events of September 1983: the number of newspaper publications about the downed South Korean Boeing number in the thousands, books have been written about it and films have been made. Let me just remind you that the most important accusation against us is the disproportionate use of force against a civilian aeroplane belonging to South Korean Airlines, flying on the first day of autumn 1983 as Flight 007 from New York – via Anchorage – to Seoul, as a result of which 269 passengers and crew died.
