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The Power of Sticking to Your Decision

Have you ever had an opinion about something that was mocked and laughed at by others who held different views on the topic? Have you ever contemplated changing your opinion just because those other people told you that you were in the wrong? Then let me narrate a story to you real quick.

Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov- yeah, you might not have heard this name ever in your life but trust me when I say that he's the reason you're alive and well today. Arkhipov was a Soviet Naval officer who was credited by Thomas S. Blanton in 2002 as "the man who saved the world." On 27th October, 1962, during the period of the Cold War, a nuclear-armed Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 was located near Cuba by a group of 11 US Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph. Even though the submarine was in international waters, the US Navy started dropping depth chargers which were intended to force the submarine to rise to the surface for identification.

By that time, the contact from Moscow had ceased to exist for several days. As the submarine was trying to hide from its American pursuers, it was too deep to monitor any radio traffic. Those on board did not know if the Cold War had ended, and an actual combat had begun. The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigoryevich Savitsky believed that the hot war had started without any solid evidence backing this and decided to launch a T-5 nuclear torpedo. Unlike the other Soviet submarines armed with special weapons, where only the captain and the political officer were required to authorize a nuclear launch, the authorization of three officers was required on the B-59 because Arkhipov was also the chief of staff of the brigade. The three men here were Captain Savitsky, Political Officer Ivan Semyonovich Maslennikov, and Executive Officer Arhkipov. Both Savitsky and Maslennikov wanted to initiate the nuclear launch but Arkhipov stood against their decision and held off his approval. Arkhipov managed to eventually persuade Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow.

If he had fallen victim to peer pressure and given his approval on the matter, then the course of events following such a nuclear launch would have been unimaginable. It could've advanced up to a global thermonuclear war as many speculators suggest. And the world as we know it today would cease to exist. We all know what the nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought to those regions and how the population there still suffer because of it. Now imagine what even more advanced nuclear weapons could've done to the whole entire world. Yeah, that's precisely why Arkhipov is called the man who saved the world.

Stick to your decision. If you know in your heart that what you believe is right and just, stick to it and do not let anyone steer you away from it. Because the domino effect of what you believe in might be even more profound than you could possibly imagine.

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