the Petrov incident

Have you ever had the feeling after a near-miss accident, when it's all over and you know you're safe and then you start to shake?

That's how I feel about this Petrov incident, which an old friend just brought to my attention:

Stanislav Yefgrafovich Petrov (born c. 1939) is a retired Russian Army colonel who, on September 26, 1983, averted a potential nuclear war by refusing to believe that the United States had launched missiles against the USSR, despite the indications given by his computerized early warning systems. The Soviet computer reports were later shown to have been in error, and Petrov is credited with preventing World War III and the devastation of much of the Earth by nuclear weapons. Because of military secrecy and international policy, Petrov's actions were kept secret until 1998.

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It happened a few weeks after the Soviets shot down Korean Air Flight 007, killing all 269 people onboard. I remember those weeks very vividly. In my very politically active high school, we were more and more worried about the Cold War and the eventuality of nuclear holocaust. One of the few political drives I don't regret from that era was the call for unilateral nuclear disarmament. I didn't know at the time that Rothbard was with us because I didn't yet know who Rothbard was.