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Two individuals - _AI - are credited with preventing a potential World War III

1. Stanislav Petrov: A lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defence Forces, Petrov was on duty at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system on September 26, 1983, when the system reported that the U.S. had launched missiles27. Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm and chose not to report it as an impending attack, against Soviet military protocol, because the system was new and relatively untested, and it made no sense that a first strike would consist of only five missiles27. An investigation later confirmed that the Soviet satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned, misinterpreting sunlight passing through high-altitude clouds27. His decision is credited with preventing an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies, which likely would have resulted in a large-scale nuclear war2.

2. Vasili Arkhipov: A Soviet naval officer, Arkhipov played a pivotal role in preventing a nuclear conflict during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 19624. As second in command on a nuclear submarine near Cuba, Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain's order to fire a nuclear torpedo at U.S. ships6. The U.S. ships were trying to force the sub to the water’s surface with practice explosives, and the submarine had been out of contact with Moscow, so the captain believed that a war may have already begun6. However, Arkhipov stood his ground, and his caution, patience, and restraint are credited with stopping World War III and saving millions of lives46.