mookiemcgee wrote:What's so crazy about a general saying he would obey a command from a superior officer?
Once that red button is pressed, the world as we all know it will probably not exist any more. Which normal person is prepared to be responsible for such outcome?
Story from the cold war(There few other like this one, but luckily there was always one person who stood between total destruction)
In July of 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba’s request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to future US interference, pursuant to the Bay of Pigs invasion debacle a few years earlier. In mid-October, a US reconnaissance airplane produced evidence of medium and long range Soviet ballistic missiles on the site, sending alarm bells ringing in Washington DC.
US President John F. Kennedy promptly established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba and demanded that the missiles be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. Over the following days the world came close to the brink of nuclear war as the two blocks vigorously asserted their positions.
Nobody realized at the time just how close to disaster they really were. And that’s where Arkhipov would make his decisive contribution to world history.
Arkhipov was second-in-command in the nuclear-armed Foxtrot-class submarine B-59, part of a flotilla of four submarines protecting Soviet ships on their way to Cuba. On October 27, as they approached the US imposed quarantine line, US Navy ships in pursuit started dropping depth charges to force the B-59 to surface for identification – completely unaware that it was carrying nuclear weapons.
The explosions rocked the submarine which went dark except for emergency lights. With the air-conditioning down, temperature and carbon dioxide levels rose sharply. The crew was hardly able to breathe.
Unable to contact Moscow and under pressure from the Americans for several hours, Captain Valentin Savitsky finally lost his nerve. He assumed that war had broken out between the two countries and decided to launch a nuclear torpedo. He would not go down without a fight.
However, unlike the other submarines in the flotilla, the three officers onboard the B-59 had to agree unanimously to launch the nuclear torpedo. As the other officer sided with Savitsky, only Arkhipov stood in the way of launching World War III.
An argument broke out between the three, but Arkhipov was able to convince the Captain not to launch the torpedo. How was he able to prevail under such stressful conditions? He was actually in charge of the entire flotilla and as such was equal in rank to Savitsky. But the reputation he had gained during the K-19 incident may have been the decisive factor in convincing the other officers to abort the launch. That detail may have made all the difference.
The submarine eventually surfaced and awaited orders from Moscow, averting what would have been a nuclear holocaust. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended a few days later.
Meet The Man Who Prevented World War IIIHow a 1967 Solar Storm Nearly Led to Nuclear War1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident
