That close call back in 1983In the late 1960′s an era of the Cold War known as “detente” began, whic

That close call back in 1983In the late 1960′s an era of the Cold War known as “detente” began, which involved an easing of Cold War tensions between the United States, NATO, and the Soviet Union. Detente, however, came to a close in the early 1980′s with the election of Ronald Reagan. In his early presidency, Reagan was very critical of the Soviet Union, even referring to it as the “evil empire” in several speeches.  When the Soviets accidentally shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007, mistaking it for an American spy plane, Reagan accused the Soviets of committing an intentional act of terrorism. Combined with his anti-Soviet rhetoric, the Reagan administration ordered a massive increase in military spending and the largest American military buildup since World War II. As part of this buildup was the deployment of Pershing II ballistic missiles in Europe, a newly designed missile which can reach Soviet cities in half the time as older model missiles. Finally Reagan announced the beginning of the “Star Wars” program, a strategic defense program in which satellite based weapons would intercept and destroy ballistic missiles in space while heading toward their targets. While the Americans intended Star Wars to be an entirely defensive program, the Soviets believed it’s purpose was to neutralize the power of the Soviet arsenal, giving the US every advantage in a nuclear war.In response, relations between the Soviet Union and United States soured and the Soviets began to prepare for a massive attack by the United States and NATO. In 1982 the Soviet Aerospace Defense Force activated its early warning system called Oko. Oko consisted of a series of 86 satellites which could detect the launch of ballistic missiles by spotting the flash and plumes of missile launches using a very sensitive infrared camera. At the time nobody questioned the trustworthiness and accuracy of the satellites except an officer named Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov. On September 26th, 1983 Petrov was in command of the Oko early warning system when suddenly the system computer sounded an alarm that a missile launch had occurred in the US. Petrov, calm and cool headed, dismissed the alarm as a glitch and ordered the system computer overridden. A short time later, the system computer again sounded an alarm warning of five missile launches from the US. Soviet protocol dictated that Petrov had to notify command that launches were occurring, but again Petrov dismissed the alarm as an error and reset the system computers.  For years Petrov maintained that he was certain that the warnings were false, however in a 2013 interview he finally admitted that despite his calm and cool exterior, inside he was full of doubts and scared shitless. Petrov reasoned that if the Americans were launching a first strike, it was doubtful they would do so with a handful of missiles, but rather with hundreds or thousands of missiles. To Petrov, the mere five launches didn’t make any sense.Thank God Petrov was right, that he ignored Soviet protocol, and that he stuck to his wits. His commanders commended him for his cool reason in the face of nuclear fire and promised him an award. However he was never awarded for his actions because doing so would be an admission that the event had occurred and that there were flaws in the Oko system. As it turns out, the satellites had spotted light reflecting from high altitude clouds and mistaken them for missile launches. The incident was swept under the rug and not made public until after the fall of the Soviet Union.Lt. Col. Petrov retired early shortly after the incident. Western sources say he was forced into early retirement for his actions, but Petrov denies this, saying he retired for personal reasons after suffering an emotional breakdown. The fate of the world was on his shoulders after all. Ten years later, when his wife asked what he did that was so special, he answered, “nothing, I did nothing.” -- source link

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