 |
| Image: The Guardian |
Vasili Arkhipov was arguably one of the most important people in human history; not because he was a great political leader, or extremely influential, but for three reasons, two of which were outside of his control. First: he was in the right place at the right time. Second: humans had recently achieved the capacity to erase the future of the species, and third: he made a choice. That choice is what I'll talk about today.
To create some context, Arkhipov lived during a time shortly after the invention of the nuclear bomb in the 1940's, and a number of nations had developed operational nuclear warheads - the USSR and the United States among them. The political climate between these nations was... a bit tense. The nations would have really liked to go to war with each other, but both heads of state were luckily rational enough to understand the reality that nuclear war is to be avoided at nearly all cost. This is a concept, called Mutually Assured Destruction,- states that if one nation launched a nuclear warhead, the other would be able to retaliate, so neither wanted to take the first shot.
Arkhipov's choice took place during the Cold War, specifically during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In October of 1962, Arkhipov was second-in-command of USSR Submarine B-59. He had also achieved the rank of flotilla commander by this time.
On Oct. 27th, there had been no contact between Moscow and the B-59 for several days. Nearby, the American Navy began dropping depth charges to coax the submarine to surface so they could identify it, despite being in international waters. Not knowing whether war had broken out between the USSR and the US, the officers on the submarine has to decide on a course of action.
Usually in this situation, the decision to launch a nuclear warhead requires the consent of the captain and the political officer. Captain Savitsky and the political officer, Ivan Maslennikov, wanted to launch a nuclear warhead, but because of Arkhipov's position as the flotilla commander, he was also required to agree to a launch. Of the three decision-makers on board the B-59 that day, only Arkhipov was against the launch, and so a launch did not occur.
Were the crew to decide to launch an attack against the United States, we almost certainly would have retaliated and nuclear war would have broken out between the two heavily-armed superpowers, and we would be living (or not) in a very different world today.
Cheers,
- Scott
Email list (one email per post, never more):
tinyletter.com/scottsieke
On Oct. 27th, there had been no contact between Moscow and the B-59 for several days. Nearby, the American Navy began dropping depth charges to coax the submarine to surface so they could identify it, despite being in international waters. Not knowing whether war had broken out between the USSR and the US, the officers on the submarine has to decide on a course of action.
Usually in this situation, the decision to launch a nuclear warhead requires the consent of the captain and the political officer. Captain Savitsky and the political officer, Ivan Maslennikov, wanted to launch a nuclear warhead, but because of Arkhipov's position as the flotilla commander, he was also required to agree to a launch. Of the three decision-makers on board the B-59 that day, only Arkhipov was against the launch, and so a launch did not occur.
Were the crew to decide to launch an attack against the United States, we almost certainly would have retaliated and nuclear war would have broken out between the two heavily-armed superpowers, and we would be living (or not) in a very different world today.
Cheers,
- Scott
Email list (one email per post, never more):
tinyletter.com/scottsieke
