People You've Never Heard of- Vasili Arkhipov

considered by many to be a golden age in American history the 1960s was a seemingly peaceful time folk rock was in its infancy with artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez beginning to make waves in the charts Alfred Hitchcock was terrifying audiences with the psychological horror film psycho and Muhammad Ali was just beginning to establish himself as the greatest boxer of all time the charismatic John F Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard Nixon in the 1961 election spurring on the civil rights movement and giving it national support for the naive things were peaceful but in the early years of the 1960's while the Cold War starting to reach its climax the colonists began to weigh in in a dark shadow of weariness and paranoia was cast in the American public after World War two the United States and the Soviet Union quickly established themselves as global superpowers but the vastly different ideologies between the two nations led to tension with both countries wanting to establish dominance in the 1950s space was still virtually uncharted territory with many people believing that space exploration was something out of a fantasy novel but with the emergence of new science and technologies the moon suddenly didn't seem too far away the United States and Soviet Union both wanted to be the first country to explore space and each side began their efforts the space race lasted the entirety of the 1960's with the two nations beginning to launch missions that were more and more advanced and although this further raise tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union the next race they would engage in it would have much larger stakes [Music] that's the atomic bomb exploding at Nagasaki the film was taken in a b-29 many miles away all of you who see this picture can judge for yourselves the extent of the menace to civilisation of this new weapon in August of 1945 after six years of fighting world war ii came to an abrupt end when the United States dropped a series of atomic bombs on Japan and Hiroshima and Nagasaki this massive display of power shocked the entire world the death toll was predicted to be somewhere in the 200 thousands and the devastation was immeasurable as soon as the initial shock wore off other nations began scrambling to assemble atomic bombs of their own and although it seemed like the United States would be the only country with the capability of building nuclear bombs the Soviet Union detonated their first bomb in 1949 with this began the arms race a period of time in which the United States and Soviet Union were once again attempting to establish dominance over the other but this time each country wanted to prove that they had two superior weapons of mass destruction [Music] [Music] he did what we all must learn to do you and Ian do be sure and remember what Burt the turtle just did friends because every one of us must remember to do the same thing that's what this film is all about Duck and Cover [Music] after having seen the aftermath of World War two the American public was not naive to the annihilation that was promised by these weapons this led to a massive surge in paranoia with many people believing that a nuclear strike was possible at any time the government did not ignore this and their efforts to educate the public on nuclear attack only filled the anxiety that was plaguing the nation [Music] in 1962 the United States became aware of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles near the island of Cuba just 90 miles from us shortly the discovery of these missiles began the 13-day standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis the missiles were located on a Foxtrot class submarine manned by the Soviet Navy the submarine had three primary officers on board captain Valentin Savitsky political officer ivan semana vich miss Lana cough and flotilla commander Vasili arkhipov the United States Navy discovered the submarine and began dropping signaling depth charges which would have forced the submarine to the surface allowing it to be identified the submarine called b-59 in an attempt to escape their American pursuers began descending deeper into the ocean and eventually lost radio signal it had not been in contact with the Soviet Union in days and those on board quickly began debating whether or not they were under attack believing that war had broken out and unable to contact anyone for confirmation the idea of launching the nuclear torpedoes quickly arose although Soviet submarines typically only required the captain and political officers authorization to launch missiles the b-59 submarine in particular required that all three officers on board agreed to launch captain Savitsky thinking that war had broken out and their submarine was under attack by the US Navy wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo political officer Miss Lana Cobb agreed and had this been any other Soviet submarine the torpedo would have been launched at the United States but b-59 required unanimous agreement between the three officers and Vasili arkhipov was against the launch argument broke out between the officers but to launch the torpedo when unanimous authorization was not met would have been going directly against the submarines orders arkhipov held firm on his stance and eventually convinced the other officers to surface and await further orders from their commanders where they eventually found out the war had not broken out when the submarine returned to the Soviet Union they were met with animosity and contempt from their superiors although the crew followed the unanimous authorization policy many of their comrades considered them cowards and thought that their actions were disgraceful despite the initially hostile welcomed many people understood that if the submarine had launched the nuclear torpedo and all-out nuclear war was inevitable and that facility arkhipov was the only reason a torpedo was not launched many experts say that if the torpedo had been launched the United States would have responded with nuclear weapons of their own and world war 3 would have likely followed a global war fought with the nuclear power that both countries were wielding would have ensured mass destruction and casualties and possibly even triggered a major thermonuclear response America was bracing for a nuclear war in the 1960s but almost nobody knew how close we truly came to it in 2002 while discussing the Cuban Missile Crisis former adviser for John F Kennedy Arthur M Schlesinger jr. stated this was not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War it was the most dangerous moment in human history on October 27th 1962 Vasili arkhipov saved the world and I bet you haven't ever heard of him [Music] you

Channel: Mary

Views: 577

Keywords:

Id: ctAmC7o4fsc

Length: 6min 53sec (413 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2019