The Man Who Prevented WWIII

Biggins

The Man Who Prevented WWIII


Ever heard of Stanislav Petrov?

Probably not—but you may very well owe him your life.
Petrov, a former member of the Soviet military, didn’t actually do anything but that’s precisely the point.

In 1983, Petrov held a very important station: As lieutenant colonel, he was in charge of monitoring the Soviet Union’s satellites over the United States, and watching for any sign of unauthorized military action.
This was the Cold War era, and suspicions were high; on September 1, the Soviet Union had mistakenly shot down a Korean aircraft it had believed to be a military plane, killing 269 civilians, including an American Congressman. The Soviet Union believed that the United States might launch a missile attack at any moment, and that they would be forced to respond with their own arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Several weeks after the airplane disaster, on September 23, another officer called in sick, so Petrov was stuck working a double shift at a secret bunker, monitoring satellite activity, when “suddenly the screen in front of me turned bright red,” Petrov told BBC News. “An alarm went off. It was piercing, loud enough to raise a dead man from his grave.”

According to the system, the United States had launched five missiles, which were rapidly heading into Soviet territory. The U.S.S.R. was under attack.

All Petrov had to do was push the flashing red button on the desk in front of him, and the Soviets would retaliate with their own battery of missiles, launching a full-scale nuclear war.
“For fifteen seconds, we were in a state of shock,” he told The Washington Post. “We needed to understand, what’s next?”
Though the bunker atmosphere was chaotic, Petrov, who had trained as a scientist, took the time to analyze the data carefully before making his decision. He realized that, if the U.S. did attack, they would be unlikely to launch a mere five missiles at once. And when he studied the system’s ground-based radar, he could see no evidence of oncoming missiles.

He still couldn’t say for sure what was going on, but “I had a funny feeling in my gut,” he told The Post. “I didn’t want to make a mistake. I made a decision, and that was it.”

Luckily for all of us, he decided not to push that button. Later, his instincts were proven right—the malfunctioning system had given him a false alarm, and the U.S. had not deployed any missiles. Thanks to Petrov’s cool head, nuclear war had been narrowly averted, and millions of lives were saved.

Unfortunately, Petrov didn’t exactly receive a heroic reward from the Soviet military: Embarrassed by their own mistakes, and angry at Petrov for breaking military protocol, they forced him into early retirement with a pension of $200 a month. Petrov’s brave act was kept secret from the outside world until the 1998 publication of a book by one of Petrov’s fellow officers, who witnessed his courage on that terrifying night.

Since the book’s publication, Petrov has been honored by the United Nations and presented with a World Citizen Award, and there has been talk of giving him the Nobel Prize. Still, the humble Russian scientist plays down his role in averting a nuclear crisis: “I was simply the right person in the right time, that was all,” he said in the upcoming documentary, The Red Button and the Man Who Saved the World.
We’ve got to disagree with him. Sure, he may have done nothing but in this case, it might just be the hardest thing to do.

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22343/84651-prevented-wwiii

smashey

Damn. I thought he played football for Aston Villa.

fryup

buy that man a pint

wudangclan

good on ya,petrov.

loveissucide

I'm full of admiration for him.By being crap at his job he saved the world.

Piste

He really should get the nobel prize. It's a bit crazy that Obama did and this guy didn't.

MagicMarker

Damn communists.

Diabhal Beag

Somebody else would have if he didn't. He's no Stilian or Martin Petrov though

Elessar

There's more to it than this. I was watching a BBC documentary on him and in it IIRC he was ordered, more than once by superior officers to launch a counter strike, but he didn't. And the alarms went off multiple times. Turns out it was sunflare that was confusing the satellites.

The world truely does owe this man a large debt.

SV

What's this people saying he was crap at his job?
As far as I can tell this makes him pretty outstanding at his job..

Biggins

He saved more lives in 5 minutes than Bush has killed in eight years.

Long Onion

Monkeycock

Biggins

SV wrote: »

What's this people saying he was crap at his job?
As far as I can tell this makes him pretty outstanding at his job..

I think they mean "officially" he was crap at his job.
Morally and for using his calm head, in all honesty, he was/is THEE right man for the job.

Sofiztikated

Elessar wrote: »

The world truely does owe this man a large debt.

What, we owe him money! Damn FF and their policies.

:pac:

galwayrush

Does he have an Irish granny? he could play for us if he did.:D

citizen_p

a world humanitarian award dosnt put food on his table...

id much perfer an extra 200 euro a week

ejmaztec

galwayrush wrote: »

Does he have an Irish granny? he could play for us if he did.:D

He'd be too indecisive to kick the ball.

Praetorian Saighdiuir

They need to name a wodka after this guy!!! stat!!

mike65

Old news! I knew that years ago, the only times we all nearly got vapourized were when an accident nearly happened.

My name is URL

Yeah... well.. what has he done lately?

anniehoo

Thanks for that Biggins! Im amazed..he was some man to follow his gut instinct rather than give in to pressure from others. The world needs a few more like him.

ScumLord

If my job was sitting around waiting to press a big red button I would have jumped on the chance to push it.

humanji

Biggins wrote: »

He saved more lives in 5 minutes than Bush has killed in eight years.

I'm sure he's saved more lives than all of us have killed in 8 years.

asdasd

He saved more lives in 5 minutes than Bush has killed in eight years.

He saved the world. The Americans would have responded to his response to the fake missiles with real missiles. The Soviets then responded to those and the 50-75K missiles deployed around the world at the time would have ended the world. i believe there were 4 targeted at Ireland.

ScumLord

asdasd wrote: »

He saved the world. The Americans would have responded to his response to the fake missiles with real missiles. The Soviets then responded to those and the 50-75K missiles deployed around the world at the time would have ended the world. i believe there were 4 targeted at Ireland.

WTF? That's not cool dude. :mad:

Wagon

That's one of the coolest things ive heard in ages! If anyone earned a complimentary keg of Arthurs finest, it's him. Cheers Petrov!

Blazer

pfttt..old news...in fact do a search and you'll find this thread was on boards about 9 months ago at least.:p

asdasd

That's one of the coolest things ive heard in ages! If anyone earned a complimentary keg of Arthurs finest, it's him. Cheers Petrov!

It's cool but scary at the same time. Remember there are still approx 20,000 warheads out there.

SoWatchaWant

Cool story, but it was Ozymandias really, wasn't it?

Fcuking hell, what a false alarm to receive !!

wudangclan

SoWatchaWant wrote: »

Cool story, but it was Ozymandias really, wasn't it?

i think you're getting mixed up with ozzy osbourne.

MikeC101

asdasd wrote: »

He saved the world. The Americans would have responded to his response to the fake missiles with real missiles. The Soviets then responded to those and the 50-75K missiles deployed around the world at the time would have ended the world. i believe there were 4 targeted at Ireland.

Targeted by the Reds or the Yanks? I assume the former.

Anyway, Dev would have rised from his grave and used his super powered neutrality beam to shield us from the nukes, so we would have been ok.

I think.

asdasd

We would have been saved by the virgin Mary actually, as they targetted Knock.

ejmaztec

MikeC101 wrote: »

Targeted by the Reds or the Yanks? I assume the former.

Anyway, Dev would have rised from his grave and used his super powered neutrality beam to shield us from the nukes, so we would have been ok.

I think.

It was the Orange Order.:eek:

Soby

Berkut wrote: »

pfttt..old news...in fact do a search and you'll find this thread was on boards about 9 months ago at least.:p

Would if i could:P

robinph

Wasn't there another close call in the '80's when there was a massive NATO training operation going on, but without any actual troops I think, but setup so that all the systems were simulating actually starting an attack on the Eastern Block. It fooled them as well and they very nearly retaliated to the fake attack.

aidan_dunne

robinph wrote: »

Wasn't there another close call in the '80's when there was a massive NATO training operation going on, but without any actual troops I think, but setup so that all the systems were simulating actually starting an attack on the Eastern Block. It fooled them as well and they very nearly retaliated to the fake attack.

Yep, it was an exercise in late 1983 called 'Able Archer'. The Soviets (Andropov in particular) were so paranoid about it, especially with everything that had happened in the weeks and months leading up to it (the Korean airliner being shot down, Reagan's description of the Soviet Union as being 'the evil empire', the announcement of the 'Star Wars' project, the joke recording of him saying "I have declared war on Russia, the bombing begins in five minutes", etc.), they honestly believed that they were going to launch a real first strike attack using the 'Able Archer' excercise as a cover for it.

There was a good documentary about the whole thing on Channel 4 a couple of years ago called '1983: The Brink Of Apocalypse' and the Petrov incident was also mentioned in it. I recommend anyone to try and track down a copy as it'll really explain how close we came to the big one! :eek:

kincsem

His picture here

http://www.islandbreath.org/2009Year/2009-08/090810homer.png

Jesus Wept

Yes I've heard of him.

I prevented World Wars IV, V, and VIII and Rocky VII but you don't hear me boasting.

thebman

Fooking trade union action saved us all, who'd have thunk it :P

Mr Benevolent

MikeC101 wrote: »

Targeted by the Reds or the Yanks? I assume the former.

Anyway, Dev would have rised from his grave and used his super powered neutrality beam to shield us from the nukes, so we would have been ok.

I think.

You're a bit premature there. Dev is alive and the father of Boards.ie*. I suspect he could save us from nuclear attack though. Probably by creating some sort of AH invective shield. If he put his mind to it he could probably overthrow the government to become Ireland's most successful leader. I for one will welcome our Devorian overlord!

*I know who you meant though

jaysusjones

Pfft, I bet he was just out back having a smoke and missed the whole thing.

Bandit12

Well done to that man. Buy him a pint.

Ghost Train

*Raises Glass to man who invented the Wii*

Wagon

Ghost Train wrote: »

*Raises Glass to man who invented the Wii*

And then the glass flys out of your hand and hits the TV. Kind of like using a Wii.

Riddle101

Great story. I hate the fact that history never really talks about these people. I mean I remember reading that during the Cuban Missle Crisis, one of the Soviet war ships was actually ordered to attack, but they refused to do it, even though they were risking their lives by disobeying their Superiors. But I think it's just wonderful that there are people out there that have actually made some singificance in preventing wars and major event from happening, yet I don't think we'll every see a guy like Stanislav Petrov in the history books.

El_Dangeroso

That's really interesting. I just finished reading a book called 'Blink' about the power of rapid cognition, those split-second decisions that are made by the unconscious brain and are often referred to as 'gut-reactions'. This sounds like a lot of those scenarios described in the book such as times when firefighters know to get out of a building and such.

josip

I know it's an old thread but it seems the most appropriate place to post that Stanislav died in May.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41314948

(Mods if you think this should be in a new thread I'll create one)

wakka12

Absolutely mad that armageddon was so narrowly avoided, and that one person pressing a button could cause the world to end

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFNRlvEh7ok

RobertKK

I heard it was November 11th when the US were doing war games and it looked like the US had launched a nuclear strike, but the war games were stopped to mark armistice day, and his screen showed that there was no attack, but he had waited and waited, that he had 7 minutes to make a decision.