I think this was a much less dangerous event than I think it is commonly believed, or at least that I believed until I started to read more deeply about the missile crisis… Finally, it’s just not clear why the use of a tactical weapon would escalate to use to a thermonuclear weapon. It’s not clear that it wouldn’t—maybe the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is the only thing holding back their use and this would have broken it, or maybe this would have just escalated into a full scale war between the US and USSR.
Note that the negative consequences of breaking the taboo against using nuclear weapons extend much beyond its effects on the Cuban Missile Crisis. One could perhaps even argue that Arkhipov was “the man who saved the world” because his decision prevented a nuclear holocaust decades later.
Note that the negative consequences of breaking the taboo against using nuclear weapons extend much beyond its effects on the Cuban Missile Crisis. One could perhaps even argue that Arkhipov was “the man who saved the world” because his decision prevented a nuclear holocaust decades later.