The Man Who Saved The World

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba on January 1st, 1959 after a successful guerilla warfare revolution that overthrew dictator Fulhensio Batista. On April 15th, 1961, American B26 bombers with Cuban markings attacked three Cuban airfields in a CIA organized raid designed to eliminate Fidel Castro's air force. Two days later, on April 17th, CIA trained Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's overthrow of the previous government invaded Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Castro. They landed on the beach at Playon here in the Bay of Pigs. But the invasion was a failure. By April 20th, the invaders were completely defeated and this became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. As a result of this Americanbacked hostility, Fidel Castro developed close ties with Nikita Kruef, the leader of the Soviet Union. In July 1962, the two of them made a secret agreement to deploy Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba because Castro feared a second US-led invasion like the Bay of Pigs. Soviet arms shipments began to arrive through western Cuban ports on July 25th of 1962. From the beginning of August to the end of September, American U2 spy planes took aerial photographs of various locations. On August 26th, 1962, this photo near Havana of a Soviet equipped surfaceto-air anti-aircraft site was taken. Today, This location is here.

[00:01:58]If you go back in Google Earth history, you can still see some of the dirt BMS that were used to hide the missiles.

[00:02:07]On August 29th, a missile site in Guanahai, Cuba was identified in this photo. In the lower right corner, you can see the arrow pointing north.

[00:02:17]The photo has to be rotated to align properly. These roads here can still be seen on Google Earth right here. And this is what the area looks like today.

[00:02:53]On October 15th, 1962, a U2 reconnaissance plane took this photo of a medium-range ballistic missile site near Los Palasios, Cuba. The coordinates in this photo put the location approximately right here today.

[00:03:17]In the upper right corner of the photo, you can see what direction north is.

[00:03:22]When you align Google Earth the same way, you can see what this area looks like today.

[00:03:30]It's in this general area here.

[00:03:35]This portion of the road in the photo aligned with this row of trees is found right here on Google Earth today.

[00:03:46]On October 22nd, 1962, President Kennedy implemented a naval blockade of all Soviet ships heading to Cuba.

[00:03:57]It was 500 miles north of Cuba in the Atlantic Ocean. Back on October 1st, 1962, four Soviet submarines secretly left the Cola Peninsula headed for the Cuban port Mariel west of Havana.

[00:04:13]Each submarine had 22 torpedoes and one of the 22 torpedoes on each submarine had a nuclear warhead.

[00:04:28]The four submarines were B59, B4, B36, and B130. The submarines arrived in the area about the same time the blockade began. On board B-59, the radio interception group heard President Kennedy tell America that there was a possibility of a thermonuclear conflict with the Soviet Union.

[00:04:58]Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace.

[00:05:15]It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.

[00:05:34]>> Around this same time, submarine B130 was forced to surface after all three of its engines broke down, and this revealed the presence of other submarines in the area. On this Russian map, you can see Cuba down here and the map indicating where B130 surfaced. As a result, the United States brought in 85% of its anti-ubmarine forces in the Atlantic. They began searching for the other submarines. US Naval Command ordered that any submarine discovered in the area should be made to surface to be identified. If a submarine refused to surface, it would be attacked. After 3 days of searching, on October 27th, B-59 was located off the northern coast of Cuba. US naval forces began using small underwater explosives to get them to surface. They were called grenade explosions, which had very little charge and were not intended to cause damage.

[00:06:29]These explosives were a warning to surface before more powerful explosives were used. Meanwhile, on board B-59, Captain Valentine Suvitzki, hearing the nearby explosives, believed the nuclear war had already begun. They had not been in contact with Moscow for several days, and his radio interceptors on board heard President Kennedy mention the possibility of a thermonuclear conflict with the Soviet Union several days earlier. B-59 was tracked for 3 days by US anti-ubmarine forces. At the end of the 3 days, the conditions in the submarine were becoming unbearable. In the submarine's last four hours of them trying to escape, they were on emergency lights only. The temperature inside was 40 to 50° centigrade and up to 60° in the engine room. In Fahrenheit, that's 104° to 122° in their living space and 140° in the engine room. In addition to that, the CO2 was reaching critical levels and crew members were beginning to pass out. That's when commander Valentine Suvitzki summoned his officer responsible for the nuclear torpedo and had him assemble it to battle readiness.

[00:07:40]This torpedo had the power of 15 kilotons, which was the same power of bomb used on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. It is said Suvitzki said, quote, "Maybe the war has already started up there while we are doing somersaults here. We're going to blast them now. We will die, but we will sink them all. We will not disgrace our navy." However, in order to fire a nuclear torpedo from submarine B-59, it required agreement with the three top officers, Captain Valentine Suvitzki, political officer Ivan Muslenov, and Chief of Staff Vasilei Archipov. Captain Suvitzki and political officer Muslenov agreed and were ready to fire the nuclear torpedo.

[00:08:28]But chief of staff Vasilei Archipov opposed the launch and persuaded Captain Valentine Suvitzki to surface and await orders from Moscow. They surfaced and were photographed by US Navy personnel.

[00:08:41]The submarine then made contact with American destroyer USS Coney and after discussions with the USS Coney, the Russian fleet ordered B-59 to set course back to the Soviet Union. Upon returning to the Soviet Union, lead crew members were reprimanded by their superiors. One admiral said, quote, "It would have been better if you had gone down with your ship." End quote. However, when Soviet officials learned they used the diesel electric submarines and not the nuclearpowered submarines, the criticism eased. Vasili Archipov was eventually promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and he retired in 1988. He and his wife Olga had one child, a daughter named Yelena.

[00:09:25]On August 19th, 1998, Vasilei passed away at the age of 72. He was deputy commander of the nuclearpowered submarine K19 when it had a reactor coolant leak in 1961. He and other crew members were exposed to high levels of radiation for an extended period of time. Some of the crew died within a month of the exposure. Some died within 2 years. And it is believed that Vasilei died at 72 because of the exposure he experienced in 1961. If Archipof had agreed to the launch, that most likely would have been the beginning of a major nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, he remained calm under a very tense situation preventing a global catastrophe. The truth of this story was not made public until 40 years later at the Cuban Missile Crisis Havana conference in 2002. Until 2002, America did not know that submarine B-59 was armed with a nuclear torpedo. It was a 3-day conference from October 11th to October 13th, 2002. At the conference, President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamera, said that nuclear war came much closer than anyone had thought. The director of the National Security Archive, Thomas Blandon, said Vasilei Archipov had saved the world.

[00:10:47]And this is how he became known as the man who saved the world. So there you have it, a brief explanation of the historical event that nearly brought the world to a nuclear war, but was prevented by one man named Vasilei Arhipof right here on the Forest Hagerty channel.