Vasiliy Arkhipov
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{{Infobox Military Person
|name= '''Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov '''
|born= [[1926]]
|died= {{death year and age|1999|1926}}
|placeofbirth= [[Soviet Union]]
|placeofdeath=
|image=
|caption=
|nickname=
|allegiance= {{flagcountry|Soviet Union}}
|branch= {{flagicon|USSR}} [[Soviet Navy]]
|serviceyears=
|rank= Naval Officer
|commands=
|unit=
|battles=[[Cuban Missile Crisis]]
}}
'''Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov''' ({{lang-ru|Василий Александрович Архипов}}) (1926-1999) was a [[Soviet Navy|Soviet naval]] officer. During the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] he prevented the launch of a [[nuclear weapons|nuclear]] [[torpedo]] and therefore a possible [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]].
On [[October 27]] [[1962]], during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven [[United States Navy]] [[destroyers]] headed by the [[aircraft carrier]] [[USS Randolph (CV-15)|USS ''Randolph'']] entrapped a nuclear-armed [[Soviet]] [[Foxtrot class submarine]] [[Soviet submarine B-59|B-59]] near [[Cuba]] and started dropping practice [[depth charges]], explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. Allegedly, the captain of the submarine, [[Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky]], believing that a war might already have started, prepared to launch a retaliatory nuclear-tipped torpedo.
Three officers on board the submarine — Savitsky, [[Political Officer]] [[Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov]], and Second Captain Arkhipov — were entitled to launch the torpedo if they agreed unanimously in favour of doing so. An argument broke out among the three, in which only Arkhipov was against making the attack, eventually persuading Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from [[Moscow]]. The [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]]fare which presumably would have ensued was thus averted.
At the conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis held in Havana on 13 [[October 2002]], [[Robert McNamara]] admitted that [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] had come much closer than people had thought. [[Thomas Blanton]], director of the [[National Security Archive]], said that "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world."
In [[Aleksandr Mozgovoy]]'s 2002 book, ''Cuban Samba of the "Foxtrot" Quartet: Soviet Submarines during the Year 1962 Caribbean Crisis''<ref name="Russian">{{cite web |date=June 21, 2002|url = http://65.120.76.252/russia/johnson/6320-12.cfm|title = Russian Book Looks at Missile Crisis|format = HTML |publisher = johnson| accessdate = 2008-05-03 | last=VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV |quote=}}</ref>, a participant of the events, retired Commander [[Vadim Pavlovich Orlov]], presents the events less dramatically (the captain lost his temper, but the two other officers calmed him down).
==See also==
*[[Stanislav Petrov]], a Russian duty officer at a missile warning station who averted a possible nuclear war in 1983.
==References==
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==External links==
*[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm A 2002 ''Boston Globe'' article]
*[http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/sp_world_blanton101602.htm ''Washington Post'' interview with Thomas S. Blanton, Executive Director, National Security Archive]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkhipov, Vasili Alexandrovich}}
[[Category:Soviet Navy personnel]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:Nuclear warfare]]
{{USSR-bio-stub}}
[[de:Wassili Alexandrowitsch Archipow]]
[[ru:Архипов, Василий Александрович]]