With more time to rest, read and relax lately, I have found an interesting bit of history that I was not aware of until recent readings.
It seems everybody in the world born before October 27, 1962 probably owes their life to Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov.
He was the Russian naval officer who, on that day, refused to fire a nuclear torpedo at an American aircraft carrier, thus averting the probability of a third world war and thermo-nuclear destruction across the planet.
You see during this period is what we now refer to as the "Cuban Crisis."
On October 27th, US Navy warships located the Soviet submarine B-59 near Cuba. They dropped explosives to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification not knowing that it was armed with a nuclear-tipped torpedo with roughly the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
The sub’s crew, who had been traveling for nearly four weeks, were very tired and unaware of what was going on around them. There had been little communication with Moscow.
The Americans continued to drop depth charges left and right of the hull. Inside, the sub was rocking, shaking with each new explosion.
The captain, Valentin Savitsky, believed that nuclear war had already broken out between the Soviet Union and the US and 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 American task force.
An attack could not be launched, however, unless all three senior officers aboard the sub agreed. Arkhipov, the second-in-command, stood up and did not agree.
An account by intelligence officer Vadim Orlov suggests Arkhipov told the captain that the ship was not in danger. It was being asked to surface. Dropping depth charges left then right, noisy but always off target — those are signals, Arkhipov argued. They say, We know you’re there. Identify yourselves. Come up and talk.
Arkhipov vehemently argued that since no orders had come in a long time, such a drastic action as firing the nuclear torpedo was ill-advised and the sub should surface to contact Moscow.
It did so and was met by a US destroyer. The Americans didn’t board. There were no inspections. Instead, the Russians turned away from Cuba and headed north, back to Russia.
As they did so, Khrushchev, after a thirteen-day stand-off, offered to dismantle the Cuban bases if President Kennedy lifted the blockade and promised not to invade Cuba. The crisis was over.
That lone Russian Officer on that fateful day may have very well saved the world and population as we know it today.
This lone woman is thankful as I sit looking forward to recoopering from Sciatica Nerve pain treatment.
I'm hoping for medication success, physical therapy & less pain.
I'll find out my fate for the foreseeable future.
Updates later...
Enjoy This Wonderful Day!
Nana
Comments