Vasily Arkhipov, the man who saved the world

Some relatively new information on the Cuban crisis;

The four diesel submarines, which were armed with both conventional and nuclear-tipped torpedoes, sailed from the Arctic Kola Peninsula. They managed to pass unnoticed through U.S. and NATO cordons in the northern Atlantic, but were spotted by the Navy as they approached Cuba. The submarines needed to come to the surface often to charge their batteries, and that made them easy marks for the U.S. anti-submarine cordons around the communist island.

Capt. Valentin Savitsky's B-59 submarine was quickly spotted by Navy patrol aircraft when it appeared on the surface. American destroyers rushed to block the submarine and began dropping stun grenades to force it to resurface, said Vadim Orlov, who was in charge of the submarine's radio intelligence at the time.

"The Americans encircled us and began dropping grenades that were exploding right next to us," Orlov was quoted as saying in the book. "It felt like sitting in a metal barrel with someone hitting it with a sledgehammer. The crew was in shock."

The bombardment went on for several hours and some sailors lost consciousness as oxygen ran low and temperatures inside the submarine soared above 122 degrees.

After an especially strong explosion shook the submarine, "Savitsky got furious and ordered an officer in charge of a nuclear-tipped torpedo to arm the weapon," Orlov said in the book.

"There may be a war raging up there and we are trapped here turning somersaults!" Savitsky cried, according to Orlov. "We are going to hit them hard. We shall die ourselves, sink them all but not stain the navy's honor!"

The submarines' commanders could use conventional torpedoes only on order from the navy chief, and the use of nuclear torpedoes could only be authorized by direct order from the Soviet defense minister, the book said. However, the close surveillance by the U.S. Navy made it hard for submarines to resurface for scheduled communications sessions.

Savitsky eventually controlled his anger and ordered the submarine to the surface. It was dark but the area was brightly lit by searchlights from U.S. ships and a U.S. helicopter buzzing overhead. "We felt like a wolf hunted down," Orlov remembered. "It was a beautiful but frightful scene." The book has not been translated into English. Its Russian title, "Kubinskaya Samba Kvarteta Fokstrotov," translates to "Cuban Samba of the Foxtrot Quartet."

Source: http://www.futurodecuba.org/LA%20NUEVA%20CUBA.Close%20Call%2 0With%20Soviet%20Submarine.htm

It seems the person who talked sense into Captain Savitsky was Commander Vasily Arkhipov, who may have saved the world by acting responsibly. Another account, this time American source;

washingtonpost.com: Good morning, Tom, and thanks for joining us. You just recently wrapped up a conference in Havana with some of the key players of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even with all you know about those 13 days, what surprised you to uncover?

Thomas S. Blanton: The most surprising new evidence revealed that we were even closer to nuclear war than the policymakers knew at the time, and that's saying something, because on Saturday, October 27, Robert McNamara thought he might not live to see the sunrise. At the time, there was a crescendo of bad news: a U-2 shot down over Cuba, another U-2 straying over Siberia with US Air Force jets (also armed with nuclear air-to-air missiles) scrambling to head off possible MIG interception. The Joint Chiefs had recommended air strike and invasion of Cuba, as of 4 p.m. The Cubans were firing on all the low-level US recon flights. At the conference, we found out that exactly at that moment, US destroyers were dropping signaling depth charges on a Soviet submarine near the quarantine line that was carrying a nuclear-tipped torpedo -- totally unbeknownst to the US Navy. The Soviet captain lost his temper, there could be a world war up there, let's take some of them down with us, etc. Cooler heads prevailed, specifically the sub brigade deputy commander named Vasily Arkhipov, who was onboard and calmed the captain down. The sub came to the surface about 15 minutes after Soviet ambassador Dobrynin left Bobby Kennedy's office carrying RFK's urgent message to Khrushchev, time is running out, invasion in 48 hours, if you take the missiles out, we will pledge not to invade Cuba, plus we'll take our missiles out of Turkey as long as you don't mention that part of it publicly. Early the next morning, Khrushchev announced the Soviet missiles would be coming out.

Source; http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/sp_world_blanton 101602.htm

A testimony to the age we are living in; one man's irresponsibility can destroy the world, where another's can save it.