Originally posted by Dowding
The Soviets were incredibly paranoid.
Don't forget inept. During AA, the KGB here made incorrect reports on stateside alert status.
Additionally, Andropov had announced to his compatriots that the Reagan administration was preparing for a nuclear attack in May of 1981.
Since the Soviets had war plans that used war games as the cover for a build up to first strike, they projected that tactic on to the US/NATO. Thus, coupled with Andropov's paranoia, they assumed AA was a similar plan on the other side of the fence.
Of course, the US/NATO conducted such exercises annually. AA was just on more in a long line of annual Fall exercises.
I think it pays to remember which side was close to pushing the button when you evaluate the history of this exercise.
It wasn't the US/NATO.