Vasili Arkhipov Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov ( ) ( 30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998 ) was a Soviet Navy officer . During the Cuban Missile Crisis , he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and thereby prevented a nuclear war . Thomas Blanton ( then director of the National Security Archive ) said in 2002 that " a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world " . Early life and education . Arkhipov was born into a peasant family near Moscow . He was educated in the Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet – Japanese War in August 1945 , serving aboard a minesweeper . He transferred to the Caspian Higher Naval School and graduated in 1947 . He served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea , Northern and Baltic Fleets . Career . " K - 19 " accident . In July 1961 , Arkhipov was appointed deputy commander or executive officer of the new ballistic missile submarine " K - 19 " . During its nuclear accident , he backed Captain Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev during the potential mutiny . While assisting with engineering work to deal with the overheating reactor , he was exposed to a harmful level of radiation . This incident is depicted in the American film " " . Involvement in Cuban Missile Crisis . On 27 October 1962 , during the Cuban Missile Crisis , a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier located the diesel - powered nuclear - armed Soviet near Cuba . Despite being in international waters , the Americans started dropping practice depth charge s , explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification . There had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days and , although the submarine ' s crew had earlier been picking up U . S . civilian radio broadcasts , once " B - 59 " began attempting to hide from its U . S . Navy pursuers , it was too deep to monitor any radio traffic , so those on board did not know whether war had broken out . The captain of the submarine , Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky , believing that a war might already have started , wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo . Three officers on board the submarine – Savitsky , the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov , and the second - in - command Arkhipov – were authorized to launch the torpedo if agreeing unanimously in favor of doing so . An argument broke out among the three , in which only Arkhipov was against the launch . Although Arkhipov was only second - in - command of submarine " B - 59 " , he was actually commander of the flotilla of submarines , including " B - 4 " , " B - 36 " and " B - 130 " , and of equal rank to Captain Savitsky . According to author Edward Wilson , the reputation Arkhipov gained from his courageous conduct in the previous year ' s " K - 19 " incident also helped him prevail in the debate . Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow . This presumably averted the nuclear warfare which could possibly have ensued had the torpedo been fired . The submarine ' s batteries had run very low and the air - conditioning had failed , so it was forced to surface amidst its U . S . pursuers and head home . Washington ' s message that practice depth charges were being used to signal the submarines to surface never reached " B - 59 " , and Moscow claims it has no record of receiving it either . Aftermath . When discussing the Cuban missile crisis in 2002 , Robert McNamara , who was U . S . Secretary of Defense during the crisis , stated that " we came very close " to nuclear war , " closer than we knew at the time . " In Aleksandr Mozgovoy ' s 2002 book , " Kubinskaya Samba Kvarteta Fokstrotov " ( Cuban Samba of the Foxtrot Quartet ) , retired Commander Vadim Pavlovich Orlov , a participant in the events , presents them less dramatically , saying that Captain Savitsky had merely lost his temper , but eventually calmed down . Later life and death . Arkhipov continued in Soviet Navy service , commanding submarines and later submarine squadrons . He was promoted to rear admiral in 1975 and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy . He was promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and retired in the mid 1980s . He subsequently settled in Kupavna ( incorporated into Zheleznodorozhny , Moscow Oblast , in 2004 ) , where he died on 19 August 1998 . The radiation to which he had been exposed in 1961 contributed to his death .