The signs were always there. There have been plenty of moments over the last few decades when we as a nation could have taken the risks of concentrated, unaccountable power seriously.
One such example arose at a 2002 conference in Havana Cuba, marking the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crises. Historians, politicians, retired military officers and the media met to share stories and pour over thousands of recently declassified documents. One story that emerged over those three days was described by Pulitzer-Prize Winning Historian Arthur Schlesinger as ''not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War ... [but] the most dangerous moment in human history.''
On Oct. 27 1962, a Soviet B-59 submarine was trapped and being bombarded with depth charges by US Warships off the coast of Cuba. The submarine began to face serious mechanical failures, internal temperatures ranging from 104 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, deadly levels of Carbon-Dioxide in the air made breathing difficult for the crew while US depth-charges were unleashing terrifying explosions that rocked the submarine around them. What the US Warships did not know, the submarine they were bombarding was carrying nuclear torpedoes. And the Captain of the Submarine, after four hours of distress, ordered that the nuclear weapons be prepped for use. Had these weapons been unleashed, there is little doubt that full-scale nuclear warfare would have ensued, realistically entailing a global unleashing of nuclear weapons, a nuclear winter and the total eradication of our planet's ability to continue fostering human life.
One of the Submarine's crew, Captain P.V. Orlov, described the scene as follows: (source, National Security Archive)
''The lesson from this is that a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world,'' said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. That's right, a Soviet Communist sub-mariner saved the world.The accumulators of B-59 were discharged to the state of water, only emergency light was functioning. The temperature in the compartments was 45-50 C, up to 60 C in the engine compartment. It was unbearably stuffy. The level of CO2 in the air reached a critical practically deadly for people mark. One the duty officers fainted and fell down. The another one followed, then the third one… They were falling like dominoes. But we were still holding on, trying to escape. We were suffering like this for about four hours. The Americans hit us with something stronger than the grenades [depth charges] – apparently with a practical depth bomb. We thought – that’s it – the end. After this attack, the totally exhausted Savitsky, who in addition to everything, was not able to establish connection with the General Staff, became furious. He summoned the officer assigned to the nuclear torpedo, and ordered him to assemble it to battle readiness. ‘Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing summersaults here’ – screamed emotional Valentin Grigorievich, trying to justify his order. ‘We’re going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all – we will not disgrace our Navy!’ But we did not fire the nuclear torpedo – Savitsky was able to rein in his wrath. After consulting with Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkipov [deceased] and Deputy political officer Ivan Semenovich Maslennikov, he made the decision to come to the surface. We gave an echo locator signal, which an international navigation rules means that ‘the submarine is coming to the surface.’ Our pursurers slowed down.
I have to disagree with Thomas Blanton, however. The lesson to be learned here is that unaccountable power of necessity leads to horrifying consequences. Three people having the sole authority to decide whether or not to unleash nuclear-tipped torpedoes and in all likelihood end the lives of billions of people and irrevocably alter our planet's biosphere is the very definition of unaccountable power.
When informed about Vasili Arkhipov's heroic intervention, Kennedy's Defense Secretary Robert McNamara responded by saying that "We as a superpower did not look through to the ends of our actions. That was a real weakness.''
"Did not look through to the ends of our actions." Sheer, unaccountable power. No consequences.
As then, so now. Our future, under global corporate capitalism, is left in the hands of a small number of human beings whose greed is only matched by their ruthlessness and mediocrity. Privilege entails not having to look through to the end of one's actions, because the privileged are shielded from the consequences of their choices. I would argue that the lesson to be learned is that we must begin the process of de-centralizing power to the greatest extent possible. We must take our power back. Power must move out of the corporate board rooms and out of centralized governmental institutions and into our communities, into churches/mosques/synagogues, into unions and workers and consumer co-operatives.
Because, next time, we might not have a Vasili Arkhipov to thank.