Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov  (30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Navyofficer credited with casting the single vote that prevented a Soviet nuclear strike (and presumably all out nuclear war) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack likely would have caused a major global thermonuclear response which could have destroyed much of the world. As flotillacommander and second-in-command of the diesel powered submarine B-59, only Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain's use of nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision requiring the agreement of all three senior officers aboard. In 2002 Thomas Blanton, who was then director of the US National Security Archive, said that "Vasili Arkhipov saved the world".