Ivana Hughes

And one Soviet submarine had three officers on board, was being attacked by these depth charges.

They interpreted it as a real attack.

They actually thought that maybe there was a war going on.

And they were nuclear armed.

They had a nuclear torpedo.

On board and what they needed, this wasn't, you know, like they needed permission from some higher authority.

They needed, all three of them needed to agree that.

to employ the nuclear warhead.

One of them, his name was Captain Arkhipov, decided that he did not want to approve the use of the nuclear torpedo and basically saved the world.

In that moment, the very next day, October 28th, was actually the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the Soviets agreed to withdraw their nuclear missiles.

from Cuba, President Kennedy had in turn agreed that the U.S.

would withdraw its nuclear missiles from Turkey.

This wasn't known until relatively recently because at the time, Kennedy asked Khrushchev, you know,

you have my word, we'll do this, but I just need a little time and I'm not going to make it public.

And that was the agreement.

It ended the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And that was a very, very, very dangerous moment.

He became committed to preventing new nations from acquiring nuclear weapons.

That was absolutely really important to him.

But he was also, he was very, he was looking towards disarmament.