Deze man dank ik op mijn blote knietjes

Wat heeft Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov dan gedaan?
Er voor gezorgd dat de 3e wereldoorlog nooit is uitgebroken met alle nucleaire gevolgen van dien. Mijn grootste angst en zorg als kind.

50 years ago, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, second-in-command Vasilli Arkhipov of the Soviet submarine B-59 refused to agree with his Captain’s order to launch nuclear torpedos against US warships and setting off what might well have been a terminal superpower nuclear war.

The US had been dropping depth charges near the submarine in an attempt to force it to surface, unaware it was carrying nuclear arms. The Soviet officers, who had lost radio contact with Moscow, concluded that World War 3 had begun, and 2 of the officers agreed to ‘blast the warships out of the water’. Arkhipov refused to agree – unanimous consent of 3 officers was required.