By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.

Vasily Arkhipov

Soviet naval officer credited with averting a nuclear incident (1926–1998)

Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov was a senior Soviet Naval officer who prevented a Soviet submarine from launching a nuclear torpedo against ships of the United States Navy at a crucial moment in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The course of events that would have…