[Fractux]

I just read this today. Pretty funny.

Check out what the launch codes to nuclear missles had been set to during the Cold War.

Cheers!

EDIT: it kind of harkens me back to watching Spaceballs.... 1...2....3...4

[Rictor]

I read about this a few days ago. Truly stunning.

All the data checked out; there was no sign of any glitch or error. Yet Petrov says, "I just couldn't believe that just like that, all of a sudden, someone would hurl five missiles at us." And: "I imagined if I'd assume the responsibility for unleashing the Third World War -- and I said, 'No, I wouldn't.'"

Petrov declared it to be a false alarm -- not because he had any evidence of that, but because he wanted it to be false.

And then, he says, "I drank half a liter of vodka as if it were only a glass and slept for 28 hours." Which is what I feel like doing every time I'm confronted with our complacence about this system we've built.

[Jiggyhound]

so - close -

*jaw drops*

[kasperl]

Not really stunning, I just expected the code to be 666.

[Corsair]

[Taristin]

Thank god for Petrov...

[J3Vr6]

Anyone remember crimson tide?  bad ass movie...

[an0n]

It's men like Petrov who keep the world running.

The ones who think "We might be about to be vapourised in a nuclear firestorm, but there's no ****ing way I'm going to have the blood of 200 million people on my hands."

[Rictor]

well, aside from that, he acted in a rational way when when everything else was telling him to do the opposite. If there had been no person behind the decision to launch nukes, if the job had been assigned to be automatically done by a computer, well, we wouldn't be here. Only a rational and calm person could make the judgement "gee, all the senors are saying something, but there is no good reason why anyone would launch nukes out of the blue, so I'll declare this a false alarm".

I suspect that if it had been the other way around, if some jumpy, panic-striken guy at NORAD had seen Russian nukes headed for New York, things would have gone quite differently.

[kasperl]

It's either that or he simply didn't notice anything because he had the 1/2 bottle of vodka before the incident and used this "heroic thinking" stuff as a neat little cover-up.
Call me a cynic, but I've lost quite a bit of faith in mankind.

And it would be closer to 5 billion, when all's said and done.


Hands up who thinks WW3 will happen in the next 50 years!
*raises hand*

[kasperl]

Originally posted by Rictor
I suspect that if it had been the other way around, if some jumpy, panic-striken guy at NORAD had seen Russian nukes headed for New York, things would have gone quite different.

As compared to some jumpy, panic-stricken conscript in some basement on Moscow? We were just bloody lucky this guy was on watch and not some PFY.

[an0n]

He doesn't claim to have 'thought heroicly'. He basically just curled up in a ball and decided if Russia was going to burn, he wasn't going to be the one who made the rest of the world burn with it.

[Rictor]

kasperl, the way I read it, he drank the vodka AFTER the incident, not before. I can't say I blame him. If there really were nukes, and his inaction caused Russia to be caught with their pants down, I'de want to be piss drunk too. :D

[kasperl]

Rictor: I know it says he had the booze after the inaction, but if it was the other way 'round, he had a neat little excuse. And yeah, I'd want to be piss drunk too. Though I would prefer whiskey.

an0n: I know, I was just being forever cynical. I wonder what is CO called the Dereliction of Duty though.

[WMCoolmon]

In the Daily Mail interview, Petrov said,"After it was over, I drank half a liter of vodka as if it were only a glass, and slept for 28 hours," and he commented, "In principle, a nuclear war could have broken out. The whole world could have been destroyed."

All this stuff is very interesting reading...

[Knight Templar]

****ing wow.

The Cold War was a stupid time. Even stupider in retrospect.

[kv1at3485]

Wow.  Everytime there's a nuclear alert in Russia we're all six minutes from 'The End of the World As We Know It.'

Now that's a humbling thought.

[Nico]

Originally posted by kasperl
Rictor: I know it says he had the booze after the inaction, but if it was the other way 'round, he had a neat little excuse. And yeah, I'd want to be piss drunk too. Though I would prefer whiskey.

an0n: I know, I was just being forever cynical. I wonder what is CO called the Dereliction of Duty though.

That would work if he didn't admit acting like a pussy cat.
Which, more than the rest, earns him my respect, btw

[IceFire]

Originally posted by kv1at3485
Wow.  Everytime there's a nuclear alert in Russia we're all six minutes from 'The End of the World As We Know It.'

Now that's a humbling thought.

Or an alert in the U.S....