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Vasili Arkhipov

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11–20 of 54 posts

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#11
post #3

This is another interesting story about a Russian who may have saved the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

It's said that Able Archer 83 was the turning point in US thinking on the cold war.

Before this exercise Reagan actually believed that the USSR thought the US was too good and wholesome to ever launch a first strike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#13
post #7

Great story, but not really tech related

From the Guidelines [1]:

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#14
post #3

This is another interesting story about a Russian who may have saved the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

If the Wikipedia article is accurate, that is one wonderfully humble man.

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#15
post #6

It's a lonely and sad thought that the biggest heroes whose immense sacrifices and contributions to the well being of everyone around them are celebrated by... the blissful ignorance of everyone else. Except in movies. There, we get to see and experience it all.

It is also a scary thought that a decision on nuclear war was/is in the hands of a few individuals.

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#17
post #15
post #6

It's a lonely and sad thought that the biggest heroes whose immense sacrifices and contributions to the well being of everyone around them are celebrated by... the blissful ignorance of everyone else. Except in movies. There, we get to see and experience it all.

It is also a scary thought that a decision on nuclear war was/is in the hands of a few individuals.

Especially ones operating without any knowledge of what is going on elsewhere.

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#18
It's a shame that we have gotten ourselves to a point where we must rely on the level headed decision making of so few people to keep us from annihilation. To say 'saved' may be a bit premature. It's more of a shame that we have created such monstrosities with the gifts of technology and have kept them around and continue to threaten our very own existence with them. Here's to hoping for cooler heads and compassion to always prevail, for all our sakes.

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#19
Well, I'm glad the worst is over. It's chilling how many near misses there were. How many more near misses might we have endured, had the Cold War gone on, before the one not-any-kind-of-miss that would have destroyed human civilization?

Re: Vasili Arkhipov

#20
post #19

Well, I'm glad the worst is over. It's chilling how many near misses there were. How many more near misses might we have endured, had the Cold War gone on, before the one not-any-kind-of-miss that would have destroyed human civilization?

I've been reading a lot of Bamford lately for obvious reasons. Apparently, the CIA, NSA, and Chair Force were quite provocative during the Cold War. Something like twenty US aircraft were shot down by the Soviets (over Soviet airspace).
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