Question

Why was 1983 one of the most dangerous years of the Cold War?

Answer 1

Pershing Missles II were finished.  Major size ICBM's.  USSR had a false alarm.     

Some may the Cuban Missle was the most dangerous year, situation.  
ICBM's could hit DC from Cuba.  
 

Answer 2

A 1996 CIA report on the 1983 war scare concluded that the Soviets genuinely feared a preemptive nuclear strike from the United States. General Secretary Yuri Andropov “repeatedly compared” Reagan to Hitler, the architect of a devastating surprise attack on the Soviet Union that it barely survived, and told his Politburo colleagues that he was “fanning the flames of war,” an image, the report's author notes dryly, “more sinister than Andropov as a Red Darth Vader.”