Do you know that we almost had a nuclear war in 1983………

The Man Who Saved the World

On September 26, 1983 Lt Col. Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported a missile being launched from the United States. Petrov judged that the report was a false alarm. This decision is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies, which could have resulted in large-scale nuclear war. Investigation later confirmed that the satellite warning system had malfunctioned.

Petrov, as an individual, was not in a position where he could have single-handedly launched any of the Soviet missile arsenal.  But had Petrov reported incoming American missiles, his superiors might have launched an assault against the United States, precipitating a corresponding nuclear response from the United States.