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Thread: Two men who saved the world

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    France Avalon Member araucaria's Avatar
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    Default Re: Two men who saved the world

    It is beginning to look like someone in the foreseeable future will be needed to add their name to the list of ‘men who saved the world’. They will need to find something special when you have a Boris Johnson fingering the nuclear button.

    The article below explains what happened in 1983:
    Quote There was a close call in September 1983, when the Soviet early warning missile attack system malfunctioned, sounding a nuclear alarm. It turned out that sunlight passing through high-altitude clouds over North Dakota made the Soviet space-based system malfunction. It is believed that Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who was on duty that day, all but saved the world from nuclear catastrophe. He happened to know that the early warning system was not reliable and refused to pass on the news about a US “nuclear attack” to his commanders, who believed in the system.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-war-arms-race


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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Two men who saved the world



    Bumping this thread (which may be timely!) with the YouTube upload of the PBS documentary about Vasili Arkhipov, the Russian submarine commander who in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis singlehandedly refused to authorize the launch of a nuclear torpedo which would have almost certainly triggered global thermonuclear war.

    For Arkhipov, the term heroic may be a enormous understatement. I watched this again last night, and it's very, very good. Highly recommended.

    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 9th March 2022 at 12:09.

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Two men who saved the world



    Bumping this again. For those who don't know the two stories, they're the stuff of which good movies are made. (Interestingly, the heroes were both Russian.)

    It seemed pertinent to bring this back into view at a time when quite a few fairly serious and grounded analysts are pointing out that the chances of the current Russia-NATO conflict in Ukraine going nuclear, or very near nuclear, are not zero.

    One hopes for sane and cool heads to prevail. I do think they're present in the Kremlin, but definitely nowhere in sight in Washington or Brussels.

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    Argentina Avalon Member Vicus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Two men who saved the world

    The night the world almost ended


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    Default Re: Two men who saved the world

    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 26th March 2024 at 16:50.

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