The Cold War was particularly tense in 1983.
Britain faced “the deadly power of abused technology,” Queen Elizabeth II was to have told the nation in the event of the Cold War turning hot, according to government papers from 1983 released on Thursday.
The script was drawn up by civil servants as part of a war-game exercise, called WINTEX-CIMEX 83, during one of the most tense years of the Cold War.
“Now this madness of war is once more spreading through the world and our brave country must again prepare itself to survive against great odds,” the queen was to have said.
“We all know that the dangers facing us today are greater by far than at any time in our long history,” she was to have added.
“The enemy is not the soldier with his rifle nor even the airman prowling the skies above our cities and towns, but the deadly power of abused technology.”
It is unlikely that the queen has ever in fact seen the text, which was released by the National Archives along with other government files from 1983.
The Cold War was particularly tense in 1983.
U.S. president Ronald Reagan had infuriated the Soviet Union by calling it the “evil empire” and deploying U.S. cruise missiles to Europe.
Tensions worsened when the Soviet Union shot down a South Korean passenger plane, killing 269 people, and described it as a “U.S. provocation”.
Moscow then became seriously alarmed when NATO conducted a military exercise, codenamed Able Archer and simulating a nuclear attack, which it was convinced was cover for a genuine strike.
On a much lighter, but interesting note, the 1983 papers also show that then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher thwarted an attempt by the current foreign secretary, William Hague, to get a job as an adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
She denounced it as a “gimmick” and an “embarrassment” for the then 21-year-old Mr. Hague to be given such a high-profile job.
Mr. Hague had been in the public eye years earlier after having delivered a rousing speech to a Conservative Party conference at the age 16.
Thirty years on, there are no hard feelings, according to a source close to Mr. Hague.
”The foreign secretary thinks that Margaret Thatcher was, as usual, right,” the source said.