STANISLAV PETROV who prevented World War III

From Sampath’s Desk:

 

  

STANISLAV PETROV WHO PREVENTED WORLD WAR III

(7 September 1939- 19 May 2017)

  

The departure of Stanislav Petrov (77), a former lieutenant colonel of the erstwhile Soviet Union, who helped to avert a possible outbreak of US-USSR Nuclear War on September 26, 1983, when the Cold War was at its peak, is an irreparable loss to the right-thinking people and peace-loving world besides marking the end of a great saga of a military officer with humaneness. Thus, he prevented a human disaster and mass destruction a war was fraught with. He had categorically refused to be guilty of starting what would have otherwise been the World War III. Without getting emotionally aroused, he decided not to act when he heard an alarm in his military control room which indicated that the U.S. had fired ballistic missiles against the Soviet Union.

He kept his courageous decision secret for eight long years before it was revealed in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. The former colonel didn’t consider himself a hero and instead said he didn't want to be responsible for a possible World War III.

In fact, the computer system showed America having launched at least five nukes. Petrov reported the alerts as 'false reading' but said his decision was ‘50/50’. It emerged the reading was a dud generated by the sunlight reflecting off the clouds. His acumen, judgement, and presence and application of mind saved the world from a possible nuclear catastrophe as early as 1983.

 

In the early hours of that morning, the Soviet Union's early-warning systems detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. Computer readouts suggested several missiles had been launched. The protocol for the Soviet military would have been to retaliate with a nuclear attack of its own. By not immediately sending a report up the chain of the command, he saved the world from a potential nuclear disaster.

 

His job was to register any missile strikes and to report them to the Soviet military and political leadership. In the intense political heat of 1983 between the U.S. and Soviet Union, a retaliatory strike would have been almost certain. And yet, when the moment came, he said he almost froze in place.

 

He kept silent for 10 years. "I thought it was shameful for the Soviet army that our system failed in this way," said he. But, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the story did get into the press and he received several international awards.

 

Yes, Stanislav Petrov dared to think differently to prevent recurrence of a nuclear holocaust. 

There is a saying ‘even if a lie uttered for the welfare and well-being of the society and the world and its people at large, it will not carry the guilt or sin’. Petrov lived up to this dictum. Today’s world owes its peaceful existence to him. Recalling his great ‘save-world’ timely action, we bid adieu to him with an intense sense of gratitude.

 

 

R.SAMPATH

21/5/2017