Break the rules
On 26 September 1983, the Russian OKO early-warning system signalled that six missiles had been launched from the US and they were heading for the USSR. Soviet military protocol dictated that this warning should be immediately reported to senior officials in Moscow. The officer on duty was Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov. He made a momentous decision. He judged the report to be a false alarm and did not alert Moscow. Had he done so it is quite possible that it would have triggered a retaliatory nuclear attack on the US. He reasoned that it was unlikely that the US would launch an attack with just six missiles. It was subsequently shown that the Soviet satellite warning system had failed. The false alarm had been caused ...
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