[lbo-talk] war polls

[Jordan Hayes]

> "A guy named Arkhipov saved the world." Vasili Arkhopov
> was the Russian submarine commander in the Atlantic who
> on October 27, 1962, personally blocked orders to fire
> nuclear weapons at either the US mainland or at US ships.

He wasn't the commander, he was one of two "2nd Captains" and it was an 
order to spin up and prepare to fire (a nuclear torpedo) that he 
blocked, not an actual order to fire.  Soviet docterine required the 
concurrence of the Captain and both 2nds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Alexandrovich_Arkhipov among others.