On October 27, 1962, a man you’ve never heard of saved your life …
It was at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the U.S. and Soviet Union were on hair trigger alert for World War Three.
And an order to launch a nuclear missile against Americans was actually given by the commander and political officer of a Soviet nuclear submarine.
One man stopped global nuclear war.
Edward Wilson explains in the Guardian:
An American spy plane had been shot down over Cuba while another U2 had got lost and strayed into Soviet airspace. As these dramas ratcheted tensions beyond breaking point, an American destroyer, the USS Beale, began to drop depth charges on the B-59, a Soviet submarine armed with a nuclear weapon.
The captain of the B-59, Valentin Savitsky, had no way of knowing that the depth charges were non-lethal “practice” rounds intended as warning shots to force the B-59 to surface. The Beale was joined by other US destroyers who piled in to pummel the submerged B-59 with more explosives. The exhausted Savitsky assumed that his submarine was doomed and that world war three had broken out. He ordered the B-59’s ten kiloton nuclear torpedo to be prepared for firing. Its target was the USS Randolf, the giant aircraft carrier leading the task force.
If the B-59’s torpedo had vaporised the Randolf, the nuclear clouds would quickly have spread from sea to land. The first targets would have been Moscow, London, the airbases of East Anglia and troop concentrations in Germany. The next wave of bombs would have wiped out “economic targets”, a euphemism for civilian populations – more than half the UK population would have died. Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s SIOP, Single Integrated Operational Plan – a doomsday scenario that echoed Dr Strangelove‘s orgiastic Götterdämmerung – would have hurled 5,500 nuclear weapons against a thousand targets, including ones in non-belligerent states such as Albania and China.
***
The decision not to start world war three was not taken in the Kremlin or the White House, but in the sweltering control room of a submarine. The launch of the B-59’s nuclear torpedo required the consent of all three senior officers aboard. Arkhipov was alone in refusing permission. It is certain that Arkhipov’s reputation was a key factor in the control room debate. The previous year the young officer had exposed himself to severe radiation in order to save a submarine with an overheating reactor. That radiation dose eventually contributed to his death in 1998.
PBS’ The Man Who Saved the World adds details:
Just how close the world came to complete destruction during those dark October days has only recently come to light.
***
“I now believe that it could have meant the end of humanity.”
***
“I saw Defence Secretary McNamara, take Dean Rusk to the side and said, ‘The sun is setting, it could be the last sunset we will ever see.’ And that’s when I got scared.”
***
“There is a specific signal that we have, and that is 3 explosions, grenade explosions, which means you have to surface.
I don’t know what the Americans were doing, but it wasn’t three…”
The American signal to surface is different from the Russians …
***
[The commander and political officer of the Russian nuclear sub both command the launch of a nuclear weapon against the Americans. But Arkhipov said:]
“We don’t know that this is an attack – for all we know they are trying to surface us…”
The future of the world now rests on Vasili Arkhipov’s shoulders…
***
[Gary Slaughter, signalman aboard the American destroyer USS Cony:] “God only bless the man because err, what would have happened after that? We would have been a nuclear war with Soviet Russia, and there would maybe perhaps not be a world.”
We only avoided a nuclear war because one man – Arkhipov – put down his foot and said no.
Postscript: We are also grateful to American military heroes – many of them anonymous – who have blown the whistle on things which could also have led to nuclear war.
Unfortunately, Michel Chossudovsky documents In Towards a World War III Scenario that the U.S. is currently so enamored with nuclear weapons that it has authorized low-level field commanders to use them in the heat of battle in their sole discretion … without any approval from civilian leaders.
Given that top Russians, Americans and Poles say that we’re once again drifting towards a nuclear confrontation with Russia, cool-headed, ethical commanders may be our best chance of preventing catastrophe.
Nyet, tovarich.
This overlooks the extent to which the US high command - think Curtis LeMay - and elements of the ruling class were spoiling for a war. Most readers on this site don't remember how much they hated and feared the communists and Russia. I remember the YAF (young Americans for Freedom) with their pin, a mock peace pin with jets on the wings and the slogan "Drop It!" And they meant it!
No, the crazies were just barely under control, and if a carrier had been nuked there would have been no stopping them!
"...I remember the YAF (young Americans for Freedom) with their pin, a mock peace pin with jets on the wings and the slogan "Drop It!"..."
The YAF are now our Republican congressmen and their 'anti-war'(!) memoribilia is quite pricey. The seller obviously has no clue.
Back in the cold war, when I was one of the nuclear reactor operators aboard the USS Trepang, there was an unwritten agreement between the US And Russian submarine forces. When making transits across oceans and between ports, US submarines and Russian submarines agreed to cruise at different depths. Just to prevent us running into each other and starting a nuclear war.
http://andysvault.narod.ru/navy_subcoll.htm
Post cold war, the US Navy has become far more careless.
Jack Kennedy also saved our lives at the same time, in a call that was the other side of the same coin.
As told by Daniel Ellsburg in Randall Forsburg's anthology Intervention, the Deadly Connection, Kennedy's cabinet was in agreement that the US should launch strikes against the Soviet missiles already in place in Cuba. Kennedy went against his whole cabinet and vetoed their decision, arguing that the missiles might already be armed, and that if he was in the Soviet command's position, he would have given the local commanders authority to launch under attack.
When the Soviet military archives were opened, it turned out Kennedy was right on both counts.
Two observations:
This drama bears an eerie resemblance to the Dr. Strangelove scenario, where the Soviets set up a Doomsday Device to deter a US attack, but neglect to tell the US. That is what it amounted to, no?
And it must have taken enormous strength of character for Kennedy, a young newly-elected president whose previous administrative experience was commanding a PT-boat, to stand up to his cabinet with all its old hands and military heavies like that. If you could have been watching from the wall and making odds, the way it worked out would not have seemed a likely outcome.
When we consider how likely it is we'll survive the next few years, and conclude it's just possible, it is in a way comforting to remember that we somehow survived another "just possible" year, so maybe we could again. And when we consider our country is being led by dangerous lunatics, there is perhaps some comfort in remembering that's nothing new.
THE SOVIETS DID BUILD A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!!!
THE SOVIETS DID BUILD A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!!!
THE SOVIETS DID BUILD A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!!!
THE SOVIETS DID BUILD A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!!!
THE SOVIETS DID BUILD A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!!!
THE SOVIETS DID BUILD A DOOMSDAY DEVICE!!!!
... And the Americans didn't know about it until the Cold War was "over".
... And it's still in use
... And it's still in use
... And it's still in use
You tryin to blow somebodys cover around here pal?
That's what the Tech was working on under Moscow. The astroid had triggered "The Device".
#41
This is the fourth incident that I know of were a Russian prevented WWIII or mass death by radiation. The 1st is the Kirsk, A sailor went into the reactor room to manually drop the rods to prevent a meltdown just off the coast of NY, as I remember he died of radiation exposure shortly after. The second are the pilots dropping cement into Chernobyl. A fair number of them died from radiation. The is another, a tech that was working in main operations bunker in Moscow, when an astroid exploded over Russia. He was alone in there doing repairs, and he had to make the call when the alarms went off as to whether it was an attack or something else. Breshnev was ready to push the button if that Tech had made the call that it was a nuclear detonation.
I've always considered that sailor, and those pilots as true heroes. They knowingly accepted a horrible death to save people, including the supposed enemy, most of whom would never know.
#41
JFK was the real deal, challenging America to put men on the Moon and putting nuke loonies back in their chair. RFK similarly challenged organized crime like the Teamsters management and the mob. Who knows what great good he'd have gotten done if he hadn't been murdered by Sirhan Sirhan.
Sirhan had a book dedicated to him, by Bill Ayers, Obama's good-buddy and neighbor in Hyde Park, U of Chicago, Illinois. Obama and Ayers are more lethal than people imagine.
he also challenged the central bank with silver certificates. so they shot him.
I'm just surprised some military whack job on one side or the other didn't press the button out of panic.
I have vague memories of it. I was only 7 at the time but I remember my parents looking worried.
I lived close to the end of what was, at the time, the longest runway in Europe, and it was military.
Used to scare the crap out of me sometimes at night with Vulcan bombers - noisy things - taking off and landing.
There's STILL one flying - http://www.vulcantothesky.org/news/184/82/The-last-flying-Vulcan.html Exceptionally elegant aircraft even today, and remarkably advanced for it's era. "Economical" to run too in terms of MPG . . .. . .
Meh. Maybe Kennedy was just a sane heterosexual male whose greatest joys in life involved looking forward to having sex today, tonight and tomorrow. Therein lies his strength, I say. "Nuclear strike?? Hmm..... Nope! That will upset my schedule!"
<<And it must have taken enormous strength of character for Kennedy, a young newly-elected president whose previous administrative experience was ...>> .... banging chicks.
Maybe that was made Jack so much better than what has followed him into the WH.
One of the reason I am Kennedy Democrat ... the others are low taxes, no FED, smaller Federal Government, surpluses are ok, and we don't go to war for nation building. We really need another Kennedy who cares more about America's people than America's and Global Banksters.
Kennedy, the last President of and for the people
Thanks ... great info.
Like this guy did.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-11753050
"... cool-headed, ethical commanders may be our best chance of preventing catastrophe."
Valerie Jarrett fired all of them.
apparently we are doomed.
I'm sure we made him regret his descision.
Thanks GW
Made me think of this other Russian 20 years later...
Why don't we ever hear about American military doing this?.... And pleae don't remind me of the chopper pilots in Vietnam that stopped Lt. Calley as I'm getting fucking sick and tired of that well worn story of our courage, compassion and bravery to stop the genocide that was taking place in that Country 20 years earlier!
I'll answer it!
Russians have a soul. Americans don't and probably never did!
You never hear the American military doing that because it's too busy doing "freedom of navigation" exercises by flying bombers a few miles from other countries. But when the Russians do it, it's provocation. However, let's not love Russian Gov just because it is in conflict with USA Gov and agree they are both tax-feeding thugs.
Russia has 13% flat tax only
http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2003/03/russias-flat-tax-miracle
However, let's not love Russian Gov just because it is in conflict with USA Gov and agree they are both tax-feeding thugs.
cE
If we're keeping score... How many invasions and occupations has the Russian Federation been involved in since the "Fall of the Berlin Wall" that has left military facilities,"black sites" and of course "ABM" rings on the turf(s) of those Baltic and other Eastern European countries to protect Russia against an incoming Iranian missile attack or so Russia has been told which violates all of the accord(s) and treaty(s) post Cold-War toward NATO Eastern expansion?!!!...
Last I checked Mexico, Canada and Cuba or for that matter any Caribbean and Latin American countries haven't told us about their Russian military bases?...
By the way... Love your picture as the Austiran "Zio' Hollywood sell-out! After all? It's what America is all about!!!
As a consolation to The "Arnold", Thank God the Austrians and Hungarians are telling the U.S. to go fuck itself with the announcement of weapons and troop movements through it's borders to Ukraine over the past six months!
They both know a loser when they see one!
"Americans don't and probably never did!"
I disagree. People have soul. On both sides we see heroes worth celebrating.
We only loose our "soul" when we trust our leaders blindly and obey orders that we know are wrong.
Today we see more examples of such blind obedience here in the west, but its a phase any people may go through. Just keep asking that soldier in your neighbourhood what Americas interests are?
I have done my time in the military, almost 30 years. Attitudes change with maturity. I started as a bomber mechanic whose motto was "Peace is our Profession, Mass Destruction is only a Hobby". Now my main goal is to educate the new kids about The Bill of Rights and the US Constitution which they took an oath to "support and defend". I will not be following unlawful orders and no one around me is going to break the law, unlike our Commander in Chief. The most frustrating part is motivating some of the younger generation. Once I offered time off to my subordinates in exchange for completing an online course about the Constitution and only 15% took me up on the offer. As it turns out, they ended up taking the course and answering a few of my questions anyway. It was much easier than sweeping the hangar floor!
Sir RRW,
Thank you for the righetousness you create one day at a time on your side of the planet. Truly, there were many grandfathers that thought and did what you do in the past. It was the normal way of American life. World Life. Goodness and Charity towards others was the simple call of the day. Service, the Law.
Hold deep in your heart the truth of Love, and know that you are saved.
One could go on with High Philosophy, but please know also that you are loved and appreciated for every righteous deed, action, and word. Sometimes to many words can not say this simply enuff, so please sir, keep on keeping on. Our Father Knows You, and there is only One Light in the Sky that was created.
Huge Bless.
Well done. Thank you for doing your part in peace.
No-one will succeed in healing America by hating America. But if everyone could see the big picture we'd have a good chance.
RRW
Thank you for your honesty.
This coming from the son of an F-8 Crusader pilot who saw shit he didn't much like in his 3 tours of Vietnam and became "wise"!...
Like you, my father was a fan of that Constitution and spoke to it against the atrocities he witnessed and more than likely took part in while serving his Country "honorably"!...
If we don't keep trying to change it we will only get what we deserve!
We only loose our "soul" when we trust our leaders blindly and obey orders that we know are wrong.
Yes of course Rhal...
Tell us all about the "U.S. Navy heroes" that sunk the Kursk?!!!
And the American heroes that did this ?...
Or this.
http://chasvoice.blogspot.ca/2015/02/a-memorial-for-victims-of-wilhelm.html
lm
Let me add to your's!. Cause the U.S. has a "patent" on genocide and learned the trade well with the Native Americans that were never part of "We The People"!
Which will be all the more amazing if the Germans allow Angela Merkel an Anglo-American holdover tell them they need to go to war with Russia to preserve their way of life!
Churchill seriously considered using anthrax to make Germany uninhabitable for centuries.
http://www.fpp.co.uk/bookchapters/WSC/Bwar2.html
See also...
http://www.samarthbharat.com/bengalholocaust.htm
Thanks for this history GW.
It's a great reminder why we have to calm things down in Ukraine. When the fur starts flying, anything is possible and some fool could provoke WW III. I was hoping we had put all this bullshit behind us in 1989.
Have you forgotten we were the initial shit stirrers in this situation?
Putin seems like a fairly intelligent fellow, not a raving lunatic with rabies fangs that makes soap from babies and pulls the wings off of butterflies like the US media claims.
He must surely know what will happen if someone lights off a nuke, his fault, our fault, electrical short, doesn't matter MAD ensues, blood and guts and spit and ass will go flying everywhere. No winners, only losers.
There have been americans who also stepped into the breach.
November 79 A training tape was loaded into the main computers
, June 80, A defective chip started reporting nultiple inbound warheads.
October 1962 Duluth MN, the intrusion alarm was cross-wired to the nuclear attack
and launch alarm, almost launching a wing of nuclear armed aircraft.
and there was another where the sequencer started on its own
God bless each and every American hero who acted rationally and averted nuclear war!!! We owe you our deepest respect!
George Washington, quote, "God bless each and every American hero who acted rationally and averted nuclear war!"
It may have escaped your attention that the hero we're talking about here, the one who saved our asses, was Russian. I mean, not at all in the least American.
Full name, Vasili Arkhipov.
Wherever you are, Vasili, a great big huge spasiba, man!
Thirteen Days was a movie dramatization made in 2000 about President Kennedy's administration's struggle to contain the "Cuban Missile Crisis," back in October of 1962.
Meanwhile, I believe that it was at least TWICE that a single Russian offier prevented world war from starting, as already pointed out above by Row Well Number 41.
There have been about a couple dozen "accidental" coincidences that almost already started world war with atomic weapons, and perhaps twice that it came down to the decision of one Russian officer that prevented starting a world war. During that time, both the USSR and the USA were, relatively speaking, rational materialists. They were even rational enough to stop their exponential growth of weapons of mass destruction. They were developing more and more, at an exponential rate, up to having about 50,000 by 1986. Then, they agreed to slow down. However, Russia & USA combined are still believed to have around 97% of the world's atomic weapons (with an estimated 27,000 world total.)
BUT, there are now several other countries with hundreds of atomic weapons. First and foremost is Israel, which appears to me to be controlled by evil geniuses, who are apparently running games simulations which count on Islamic countries to respond sanely to the Israeli provocations ???
Does North Korea appear to be a sane and wisely governed country?
Any of those could get some tit for tat going. Then the imperatives of use your weapons before you lose them could kick in.
I wish that I could believe that the ruling classes are not sufficiently insane to start another world war, risking the use of weapons of mass destruction going out of their control. However, I think that belief is too naive about the degree to which the ruling classes have actually become criminally insane, and the degree to which the basic background problems are getting worse, faster. OF COURSE, starting a world war using weapons of mass destruction would be utterly irrational and insane. However, in my view, that is a correct description of how our "civilization" actually behaves! One of the signs of that developing was the way that the use of depleted uranium munitions has become common since about the 1990, whereas, previously, doing that was recognized as too insane to actually do!
All of that above only talks about states ...
http://www.mondovista.com/hbomb.html
The Real Nuclear Threat
By Dan Eden
That article discusses how different atomic bombs are made. It reviews some of the relatively large amounts of material which have disappeared into a probable black market, while also mentioning the smaller amounts that have been caught. That simply underscores the basic dilemma that the "atomic genie" is out of the bottle.
Consider that beyond atomic weapons, BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS are the "POOR MAN'S ATOMIC WEAPONS." So far, we have been lucky that nobody has been criminally insane to actually DEPLOY those kinds of weapons in a sufficiently insane way. HOWEVER, the ruling classes constantly are becoming MOAR criminally insane, while the people that they rule over adapt to allowing that to happen. Furthermore, these days, the "ruling classes" include those who control all kinds of rogue government agencies, as well as other more blatantly criminal organizations. Weapons of mass destruction are almost certainly in the hands of various kinds of criminal organizations which are not sovereign states, or controlled by sovereign states, which kinds of criminal organization may NOT have any home base!
Every day that there have been no weapons of mass destruction actually deployed in some significant way continues to seem like nice political miracles to me.
"Use 'em or Lose 'em" leads to the quickest excalation ending is a full nuclear exchage.
that was The Beford Incident wasn't it. only in that film the sailor in charge of firing the weapon snapped, repeated the wrong command, to fire, and the movie ended.
Also in 1962...The Beatles!
B-59 was in international waters when charges dropped on it.
Then there was the question of why the evil Soviets were asked to place nukes in Cuba:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
The US was the belligerent in this affair from start to finish.
As far as America was concerned, ALL seas are "US Territory". Same mindset still exists today (hence the Donald Cook incident).
Times may be changing though, with "certain Nations" having their own ideas on who "rules the waves" . . . .
We've heard of him. This isn't Huffington Post.