How Close We've Come to Nuclear War

Stanislav Petrov's case is still mind-blowing. Billions of people were saved because of the decision of a single man. If it had not happened, I would not have been born

I'm from the small town of Fryazino, a place where Stanislav Petrov lived after the incident. It was great to see you mentioning him! I want to add to what you mentioned, that he had never received any reward for his actions in USSR or Russia, even though he was highly praised in Europe and USA. Quite the opposite, he was moved to another less important position and later had to leave the army, had a mental crisis, and lived a difficult life, being a person who may have singlehandedly saved the world.

Hats off to Vasily Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov for keeping Fallout just a game and not reality

I had heard of Stanislav Petrov's heroism many times, but this is the first time I heard the tiny little follow-up detail that after dismissing the initial one-off missile alert, his systems told him there were FOUR MORE MISSILES INBOUND and he dismissed those too. Absolutely unreal.

The one man who died in the Rural Arkansas fuel leak issue actually saved many people. He went into an air duct vent, back into the fuel vapour-laden areas to use the computers and shut down as much as he could of the rocket to minimize damage. There was a documentary on it. Can't remember for the life of me the name of it now but worth reading/watching about.

Damn. So basically we all owe our lives to Vasily Arkhipov. I imagine staying strong to your convictions under pressure like that was insanely difficult - especially when your boss is screaming in your face.

Mankind owes a debt to Vasili Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov that can't even be put into words. May you both rest in peace, and THANK YOU.

Who would imagine that a fallen socket from a ratchet wrench could potentially cause a 9 megaton explosion.

The nuclear bomb animations are ridiculously good. Props to the animators!

The Cuban Missile Crisis came even closer than the video suggests. The only reason the Soviet submarine required three people's approval was because Arkhipov was the chief of staff of the brigade and he just happened to be on the right submarine.

STAY OFF MY LAWN DEREK

I am from southeastern Spain, as a matter of fact, my town is less than 50km away from Palomares. It is always said around here that the hydrogen bomb was found by a local fisherman who lived in my town, he was named Francisco or Paco for short, and would forever be nicknamed "Paco el de la bomba". If those bombs were detonated a huge area would be uninhabitable, but instead now there is a summer electronic music festival in a nearby town called Dreambeach Villaricos, where some of the biggest names in the scene have come to perform. I wonder if they knew about the history and the possible radioactive material that was just 10km away.

I'm so grateful for those Stanislav Petro and Vasily Arkhipov. They are heroes. Even if the stories are inaccurate, the incredible pressure on any individual driving something holding nuclear weapons--come to think of it... the fate of the world was granted to so many people--and the fact that nobody pushed the big red button is incredible, especially in the cold-war when there was so much uncertainty.

My favorite near miss is the one where someone mistook a bear scaling a fence for a person in Wisconsin, raised the alarm, the alarm turned out to be miswired and went directly to telling the airbase to scramble and launch, then one guy floored it to stop the jets from taking off because of a phone call, as once the jets took off they were to go radio silent.

Derek, you are making a change. With every video, in a different domain, contributing to making the world a better place in your own special way. I extend my most sincere congratulations!

My great-grandfather was the first man put in charge of the US nuclear arms. I haven’t watched the entire video yet if you might mention it, but late in his career a live nuclear weapon was lost near Japan, and he was sent undercover to locate the bomb and determine whether or not it had been found by the Japanese or not. It was eventually found 80 miles offshore in deep mud and was not recovered. (To my knowledge)

More than 1 "broken arrow" per year between 1950 and 1980? That's just incredibly insane!

You know your life is going good when Veritasium uploads four videos in the span of less than 2 months

Probably the best educational content on YT. Have been for years now. Still getting better.

Love your channel and this video! Just a quick feedback - The border referenced a few times (1:42, 10:54), is not that the border of Soviet Union. Back then that was Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was neither part of Soviet Union nor Warsaw pact. Warsaw pact borders were relatively close, but Soviet Union border was not that close as mentioned in the video.