The Single 'No' That Prevented Nuclear War

Now, Soviet protocol was pretty clear on this. To launch their

special weapon, and by special I mean a torpedo with a nuclear warhead, you needed the unanimous

consent of the three senior officers onboard. The captain, convinced they were

done for, gave the order to prepare the torpedo. The political officer agreed.

So there it was, two out of three were ready to push the button. But the third officer,

he refused. Just like that, in a cramped steel tube hundreds of feet under the ocean,

with the fate of the entire world in the balance, a single man just said no.

His name was Vasili Arkhipov, and crucially, he wasn't just some junior officer.