LogFAQs > #965446416

Two Russian military officers individually prevented nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, two decades apart. In 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vasily Arkhipov was one of three commanding officers aboard a Soviet submarine when a miscommunication caused the men to believe war had already broken out between the Americans and the Soviets. Everyone was ready to launch nuclear torpedoes at U.S. submarines, but the concurrence of all three high-ranking officials was required, and Arkhipov refused to green-light the attack.

Similarly, in 1983, the Soviet early-warning radar system malfunctioned and gave the impression that an ICBM had been launched by the United States, followed by several other missiles. Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov correctly assumed it was a false alarm and disobeyed direct orders in the Soviet Air Defence Forces to retaliate by launching nuclear weapons at the United States, which would've almost certainly ignited World War III.

It's quite scary how close the world came at times...