THIS writer got this actual report from the current (October) issue of "Popular Mechanics". The report based on an actual event that took place, back in 1962 stated that we were lucky to avert a nuclear war although we were very close to one. In those days US-USSR relations were at their worst, centring around the Cuban crisis that erupted between Castro's Cuba and the USA. The matter relates to the USA's attempts to stage a coup in Cuba to oust the newly elected government of Fidel Castro. The US supported and backed the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was planned and organized by the US-based Cuban dissidents with all material and logistic support from the USA.
Fortunately, it was a total war failure and an embarrassment for the US government. In response, Castro asked for military equipment from the USSR to deter USA from further attacks. In response, the USSR started sending nuclear armed missiles to Cuba. When US found this out, all scope of mutual political understanding and diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union started deteriorating. The relations between the two post-war superpowers were at the lowest ebb.
In this environment of heightened tensions; some US ships detected a Soviet submarine in the waters off Cuban coast. The US navy ships dropped depth-charges to force the Soviet submarine to surface. The submarine was too deep to receive or transmit any radio communication, and the submarine crew felt that war between USA and USSR had already broken out. The captain of the submarine, decided to launch the submarine's nuclear missiles towards the US navy ships. However as per USSR rules, launching of any nuclear missiles requires the unanimous vote of the three senior most officers on board. They were Captain, the Political Officer and the First Officer, named Vasili Arkhipov.
Both the Captain and the Political Officer, voted in favour of launching the missiles, but the First Officer differed. An intense argument broke out among the three officers, but the First Officer some how managed to convince the Captain and the Political Officer to surface. This action, an uncommon initiative and strict obedience to the submarine command rules most likely averted a nuclear war between the USA and the USSR that was totally based on the initiative and persuasion of the junior most ranking First Officer; (among the three) whose sober logic and reasoning that in reality helped avert the possibility of a nuclear war at that time. This was the turning point that finally led the US to negotiate towards peaceful approach to solve the Cuban crisis.
The Cuban missile crisis was the closest ever for our world to come to a full-scale nuclear war and at that moment only one man stood between massive nuclear annihilation and peace. That brave man was Vasile Arkhipov; the junior-most officer among the three, who in the enclosed and uncomfortable environment of the submarine, kept his cool. Arkhipov should be awarded the "World Peace Prize" even now although belatedly that he richly deserves and even maybe posthumously. The UN, the supreme world authority, should do something if this was not done earlier. This writer is not aware of any UN initiative on this critical but a real-life issue. On the subject of 'World Peace', Vasile Arkhipov deserves it. Will the UN look into this?
Engr.S.A.Mansoor
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