The Cuban Missile Crisis during the 1960’s, the day considered by some historians to be the end of the Cold War and the beginning of World War III. On October 27, 1962, one of the most remarkable date in the history of the world as the Soviet Union and the United States were on the verge of war.
The man honored by some military historians was no other than Vasili Arkhipov, the military leader who was instrumental on saving the world from World War 3.
Vasili Arkhipov was the second-in-command of the Soviet Submarine B-59 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he refused to follow his commanding officer’s order to launch torpedoes against US warships which could trigger world war.
The commander Vasili Arkhipov was ordered to lunch nuclear torpedoes against US warships which had been dropping depth charges near his submarine in an attempt to force it to surface. The US intelligence were not aware that the submarine were equipped and armed with nuclear torpedoes which will surely resulted to superpower nuclear war.
During those times of crisis, all the Soviet officers have lost radio contact with Moscow and they wrongly concluded that World War 3 have already begun. Two of the officers agreed to “blast the warships out of the water.” The second-in-command Arkhipov made a heroic decision and refused to agree.
According to the Russians, their military law ordered the unanimous consent of the three officers required to activate the decision so the nuclear launched did not pushed through.
The story of Vasili Arkhipov was shown on BBC’s documentary “Vasili Arkhipov: the Man who Saved the World.”
Here’s the link of the video:
