In 1962, the Cold War reached its climax. It was the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which for many historians was the moment when the world came closer than ever to nuclear war.
The Cuban Revolution had ended in 1959, and after the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation (where a group of US-backed Cuban dissidents attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro), the revolutionaries had established strong relations with the Soviet Union.
The crisis begins when a spy plane discovers the installation of missile bases on the island of Cuba.
These platforms were part of Operation Anadyr, where the Soviet Union attempted to turn the island into a base for ballistic nuclear missiles. The climax of the crisis was reached between October 15 and 28, 1962, when it seemed that war between the USA and the Soviet Union was inevitable.
However, the two countries eventually reached a deal: The Soviet Union agreed to dismantle its bases in Cuba if the United States did the same with its missiles in Turkey.
In addition, President Kennedy vowed that his country would not attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro or militarily occupy the island.
But what happened in those days?
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov was, although very few know, the man who saved the world from nuclear catastrophe.
It all started on October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a fleet of American ships discovered a Soviet submarine off the coast of Cuba. So the Americans began launching underwater charges (no explosives, as they were warning shots) and called for the B-59 submarine to surface.
Inside the submarine, the situation was tense, as they had no communication with the outside world for several days. Many of them thought the worst: the war had started and therefore they were being "attacked".
In this high-tension climate, the captain began to consider whether or not to release his payload: the nuclear-tipped torpedo.
The captain of the submarine was Valentin Savitsky, and he needed two people's permission to fire nuclear weapons.
On one side was Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, the political official (representative of the Soviet Communist Party who aimed to achieve civilian control of the army) and Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, the commander of three submarines that had gone on a secret mission to Cuba.
Meanwhile, the temperature in the submarine reached 40 degrees, the air conditioning system was broken, the Captain knew that they should go up at any moment, but to surface would mean exposure to a direct attack. He should have acted immediately!
An intelligence officer who was on board wrote in his memoirs: “The Americans hit us with something stronger than grenades and apparently an underwater charge. We thought the end had come…” At that moment, something occurred to the captain.
"Perhaps the war has started at the top. Let's blow it up! We will die, but we will sink them all, we will not become the shame of the fleet".
The idea was to detonate the nuclear weapon and with luck maybe manage to survive the blast and escape the American attack.
So the political official gave his approval to launch the attack, and everything was ready but for Arkhipov.
Arkhipov had a heated argument with Captain Savitsky, refusing to give permission to use the nuclear torpedo.
Apparently, he was the only one who kept his cool and understood that the Americans knew very well where they were and that the "attacks" had failed on purpose. So after discussion, he persuaded Savitsky to surface and wait for orders.
When they came to the surface no one attacked them, there was no attempt to get closer. In the distance a US Navy destroyer asked them to identify themselves. So the fleet of four submarines headed towards Russia again.
It seems like a small episode during the cold war, but it was not.
Perhaps this event is not important for what happened, but for what would have happened if the nuclear weapon had been launched.
Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archives of the United States, made it clear: "a man named Vasili Arkhipov saved the world." Arkhipov was the only one who intervened between the captain and the start of nuclear war.
Another historical example of human idiocy and the destructive magnitude of nuclear weapons. The 20th century ushers in an era where, for the first time in history, people have the ability to exterminate not only themselves but all life on earth.
Some say that nuclear weapons were made never to be used, but who knows how many times this belief has been about to be destroyed, along with everything else on earth./DITA/
