‘The country that attacks first will die 27 minutes later’ Peace prize winner Petrov

[geetrue]

I'm glad I got to read this thirty (30) years after it almost really happened.

What a horrible accident this could've been

The International Peace Prize ceremony was held in Dresden. Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov became the prize-winner this year. On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov prevented the beginning of a potential nuclear war. During his shift on the night of September 26, the airspace control system received a report that the US was planning an attack against the Soviet Union. In an interview with Voice of Russia Petrov remembers that there was shock, bewilderment, and confuw into panic when the ‘red button’ could be pushed.

Lieutenant Colonel Petrov immediately reported the message to senior commanders, but he thought it was perhaps an error and decided to perform a diagnostic systems check. After his decision to further investigate, it turned out that the system had failed and the alarm was false.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02_19/Th...nislav-Petrov/