As the doomsday clock ticks even closer to midnight it would be instructive to ask the man who saved the world his thoughts on our current “nuclear modernization.” Vasili Arkhipov, whose name should be universally recognized and honored was the Soviet submarine officer who in 1962 refused the order to launch a nuclear-armed torpedo against a U.S. destroyer at the height of the Cuban missile crisis. Arkhipov, whose visage should be carved onto Mount Rushmore and monuments worldwide prevented the extinction of humanity by his refusal to follow the order to launch.

Arkhipov, the man who saved the world from nuclear annihilation would be consumed with horror by the United States trillion-dollar “nuclear modernization” plan. Arkhipov would recoil at the reality of the United States paying billions to a private corporation, Northrop-Grumman to build first-strike hair-trigger nuclear weapons that insure planetary apocalypse. Arkhipov would advise us that there is no second chance here, there is no planet B. Arkhipov would point out the tragic folly of bankrupting ourselves financially, morally, intellectually while paying tragic fealty to weapons systems that will never allow again the possibility of courageous intervention that Vasili Arkhipov showcased when he saved the world. Humanity needs to globally commit to the elimination of all nuclear weapons. This is our only true pathway to survival.

Jim Sawyer

Edmonds