Happy Belated Vasili Arkhipov‏ Day

Just because I forgot it doesn't mean I should not try to remind everyone else:


August 19:

Happy Vasili Arkhipov‏ Day

Today is the anniversary of the death of Vasili Arkhipov, a beacon of integrity and intelligence in the fog of nationalism and bravado. His death is important because it was caused by technical overreach instigated by that nationalism and bravado and we should be reminded of that. But his life, particularly his human heroism during the blundering Cuban Missile Crisis, is a tribute to the better elements of mankind.

At the height of the Cold War with America, the Russians began to fear the gap developing between the two powers' submarine fleets. The Russians eventually rushed the development and construction of the K-19, the first of two new Hotel-class ballistic missile submarines. As with much of the Russian development and manufacturing, there was a lot wrong with the K-19. In the movie, "K-19," Harrison Ford played the part of a real Russian sub commander in 1961 who managed a real on-board accident in a K-19 cooling system that threatened a meltdown. As in Chernobyl, individuals accepted their radiation deaths as they went into the reactor on the K-19 and Jerry-rigged an alternative cooling system. Many died, the commander played by Ford years later died of complication of radiation exposure.

His name was Vasili Arkhipov. There should be a world holiday for him.

The following year, in July of 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba’s request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to future US interference after the Bay of Pigs invasion debacle a few years earlier. In mid-October, a U.S. reconnaissance airplane produced evidence of medium and long range Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy promptly established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba and demanded that the missiles be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union.

The two great powers faced off. It is important to know that Kennedy was being advised to launch a first strike against the Russians with the logic that the Russian retaliatory ability was limited and would cause 30 million civilian deaths at the most. The military thought that a bargain. At the same time Castro was campaigning Khrushchev for a first strike against the U.S., knowing full well Cuba as an entity would not exist afterwards. (See The Armageddon Letter.) These people were the world leaders whose decisions were going to determine the future of the world. And those who were democratically elected did not seem to be getting any less crazy advice.

The K-19 hero Vasili Arkhipov was second-in-command in the nuclear-armed Foxtrot-class submarine B-59, part of a flotilla of four submarines protecting Soviet ships on their way to Cuba. On October 27, as they approached the US imposed quarantine line, US Navy ships in pursuit started dropping depth charges to force the B-59 to surface for identification – completely unaware that it was carrying nuclear weapons.
The explosions rocked the submarine which went dark except for emergency lights. With the air-conditioning down, temperature and carbon dioxide levels rose sharply. The crew was hardly able to breathe.
Unable to contact Moscow and under pressure from the Americans for several hours, Captain Valentin Savitsky finally began to crack. He assumed that war had broken out between the two countries and decided to launch a nuclear torpedo. He would not go down without a fight.
However, unlike the other submarines in the flotilla, the three officers on-board the B-59 had to agree unanimously to launch the nuclear torpedo. As the other officer sided with Savitsky, only Arkhipov stood in the way of launching World War III.
An argument broke out among the three, but Arkhipov was able to convince the Captain not to launch the torpedo. How was he able to prevail under such stressful conditions? He was actually in charge of the entire flotilla and as such was equal in rank to Savitsky. But the reputation he had gained during the K-19 incident may have been the decisive factor in convincing the other officers to abort the launch. That detail may have made all the difference.

The submarine eventually surfaced and awaited orders from Moscow, averting what would have been a nuclear holocaust. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended a few days later.
This crucial episode of the Cold War only became known to the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union many years later.

Justice and Honor 2

Anyone searching for metaphors on how the courts deliver a decision, not justice, need go no further than the Casey Anthony case.

One may offer countless rationalizations: The jury wanted to go home, there was a reasonable doubt as there was no witness, there was no definitive motive, the television crime programs have raised the bar for evidence, people are uncomfortable with the death penalty. But this case was a battle between circumstantial evidence and innuendo. The family itself has been destroyed by the women's defense. Sexual abuse, conspiracy in an accidental death, perjury have been lightly raised as compliment to the heavy prosecution circumstantial suggestions.

The essence here is that this is a combat for victory, not truth, and the major weapon is uncertainty. The minor benefit is entertainment. Strangely, this culture is remarkably certain about a lot of difficult questions--global warming, WMDs, how to raise children, the effect of deficit spending--but when faced with a staggering imbalance of evidence, it defers.

Perhaps later, Casey and O.J. will meet and search for the two perpetrators together. A reality series may develop. Love may bloom.

Justice and Honor

A man is in line at a nightclub when is and his party are approached by a drunk. The drunk blathers obscenities and, when ignored, sucker punches the man from behind. The man turns on him and the drunk retreats to a nearby policeman and claims he was attacked by the man in line.

A man is walking through a large crowd with small group, one a voluptuous woman. Pushing their way through the crowd towards them is a group of young men. As the two groups merge a moment, one young man grabs the girl's breasts and then the two groups separate in the crowd.

A man is returning from the night shift and is stopped at a red light at about eleven o'clock when he is rear-ended. He get out and inspects the damage. His car is scratched but the car that hit him has serious grill damage. The other driver gets out of the car full of apologies and is clearly drunk. He says the accident was his fault and is terrified if the event is reported he will be arrested. He promises to have the car fixed if only the man will keep the event private and not call the police. The man feels sorry for the drunk and agrees. They exchange phone numbers and he goes home. The next morning he is awakened by a state trooper who says he is being arrested for backing into a man's car at a red light and fleeing the scene.

There are probably a number of problems in society that would be solved by the re- institution of dueling but not many because, as as most feudal societies recognized, most people will not play by the rules. (In most feudal societies, the very possession of weapons was illegal for the lower class.) In daily intercourse one is tempted to look for honor and justice but any such search in the examples above would be dangerous and perhaps fatal. There is no protection for the average man from someone who will not play by the rules, especially if one has much to lose and one has little. The only sane position is self-defense: Call a cop, report the event, state your position for the record and end it.

Justice and honor are pursuits, ideals, which guide peoples' lives. They are not endpoints. They are learned and taught in time, not in a moment, and only to the willing. And they can not be enforced. Even the courts know the truth when they say, "In court, you don't get justice, you get a decision."