The Man Who (Probably) Saved the World

Radley Balko | September 26, 2007

Twenty-four years ago today, Soviet radar software showed a barage of U.S. nuclear missiles headed into Soviet airspace. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, a critical link in the chain of command between satelite operators and the Kremlin, correctly interpreted the data as a computer glitch, not a an attack, and may have prevented a global nuclear war.