Stanislav Petrov’s World-Saving Hesitation

“One man stopped World War III… and almost no one knows his name.” In 1983,

the world came closer to ending than you’ve ever been told.” The Cold War was at its peak.

Nuclear weapons were ready. Tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

was extreme. One night, a Soviet officer named Stanislav Petrov was on duty.

Suddenly, alarms exploded around him. The system said the United States

had launched nuclear missiles. According to protocol, Petrov had one job: report it…

and trigger a nuclear counterattack. That decision could’ve started World War III.

But something felt wrong. The computers said five missiles were coming.