Détente had come to an end. With the paranoid former KGB head Yuri Andropov assuming the Premiership and the election of the staunchly anti-communist Ronald Reagan, things were heating up in the Cold War.
As the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan reached its peak and Reagan’s rhetoric became more and more aggressive, things had reached a fever pitch. The accidental downing of Korean Airlines 007 by the Soviets brought the two Superpowers to the point of no return.
Stanislav Petrov, lieutenant colonel of the Soviet nuclear early warning systems received a message one night. That the United States was preparing to launch numerous nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union. His decision that night saved the world from global nuclear war.
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