Vasili Arkhipov

Vasili Arkhipov was a Soviet Navy officer credited with preventing a Soviet nuclear strike (and, thus, all-out nuclear war) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack would have triggered a major global thermonuclear response. As flotilla commander and second-in-command of the diesel powered submarine B-59, Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain's use of nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision requiring the agreement of all three senior officers aboard. In 2002, Thomas Blanton, then director of the U.S. National Security Archive, dubbed Arkhipov as "the man who saved the world".