#1 How One Man Stopped World War III On October 27, 1962, the world came dangerously close to a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. A single man, Vasili Arkhipov, a 36-year-old Soviet navy officer, saved the world from nuclear destruction.

#2 In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment by the United States.

#3 On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy announced a U.S. Navy blockade to halt the Soviet Union's plan to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. Americans congregated in a California store to watch the news, while in New York, people lined up to purchase newspapers.

#4 JFK: "To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation and port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back."

#5 The crisis reached its peak on October 27, 1962, when Vasili Arkhipov's Soviet submarine carrying nuclear torpedoes was detected near the blockade. The submarine was too low to pick up radio frequencies and had been out of contact with Moscow for several days.

#6 A US Navy destroyer began dropping depth charges near the submarine, causing the captain and crew to believe that war had already broken out. The submarine's captain ordered the launch of a nuclear torpedo, which required the approval of all three senior officers on board.

#7 One of those officers, Vasili Arkhipov, refused to authorize the launch, arguing that a nuclear strike would trigger a global catastrophe. His intervention is credited with preventing nuclear genocide and is recognized as one of the most significant acts of the 20th century.

#8 Last October, President Joe Biden warned that the world was facing its greatest risk of nuclear 'Armageddon' since the Cuban Missile Crisis. "We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis... [Vladimir Putin] is not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical and nuclear weapons." "It’s part of Russian doctrine that if the motherland is threatened, they’ll use whatever force they need, including nuclear weapons."

#9 Ukraine is not worth the risk of nuclear genocide, and diplomacy should be the primary approach to resolve this conflict. Regrettably, however, no peace negotiations are in sight, as both superpowers are firmly committed to escalation. It's possible that a diplomatic solution could have been achieved by demilitarizing the Donbas and having Ukraine sign a treaty to not join NATO. However, the U.S. political establishment desired a proxy war with Russia, leading to the current conflict. Since the Obama administration's 2013-2014 coup that toppled a Russia-friendly government in Kyiv and Russia's response in invading and eventually annexing Crimea, the U.S. foreign policy establishment has been escalating this war on Russia's doorstep. Given the catastrophic costs of nuclear war and how close the United States and the Soviet Union already came to global destruction, even a tiny chance of it occurring should make everyone think long and hard about where this conflict might be headed. Considering the track record of NATO and the U.S. foreign policy establishment that turned stable countries across the Middle East into hotbeds of chaos and corruption, it is doubtful that they possess the mental aptitude or the moral authority to be risking war between nuclear superpowers in Ukraine.