It is the 27th of October 1962. We are at the height of the Cold War. For well over a decade the world has been in a nuclear standoff between the communist east and capitalist west. This ideological battle has evoked paranoia across both sides of the Iron Curtain with each anticipating an attack from the other to come at any moment.

Now these deep-seated tensions have come to a head with the Soviet Union providing Cuba with intermediate range ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. These weapons, able to hit the United States with as little as five minutes warning, have sent Washington into a panic. America is on a war footing. The US Navy has launched a blockade of Cuba to prevent further deliveries of missiles. US Strategic Air Command has been moved to Defcon 2; one step from nuclear war.

Attempting to break this blockade is the Soviet submarine B59. Having departed from the Kola Peninsula four weeks earlier, it formed a part of a deployment accompanying the missiles. They have encountered the American fleet surrounding Cuba. In an attempt to avoid American warships, the Soviet submarine has been running deep, well beyond the depth of any radio communications. Their last information on the developing crisis is two-days old coming from reports intercepted from American radio stations and vague messages from Moscow. Worse still, their submarine designed for the icy waters of the North Atlantic is not coping well with the warm tropical seas of the Caribbean. The coldest section of the submarine is a sweltering 45 degrees. Carbon dioxide filters have been malfunctioning with many of the crew fainting from the heat and oxygen deprivation.

Above them, and unaware of the dire conditions faced by the soviet crew, American sailors and airmen are determined to drive the submarine to the surface. They begin dropping practice depth charges. These are weapons used for training and have little explosive power; scarcely more than a hand grenade posing no threat to the Soviet sub. But the Russians are not aware of this. To the panicked sonarmen onboard the submarine, they are indistinguishable from the real thing.

The Soviet captain, Valentin Grigorievich Savitsky is unaware of the Americans’ intentions. Panicked, stressed, and suffering under the brutal conditions of his submarine, to him there can only be one conclusion: they are under attack from the Americans. He calls up the officer responsible for the submarine’s ‘special weapon’ a nuclear torpedo. ‘We’re gonna blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all’ the captain reportedly remarks.

US bombers are orbiting above Greenland ready to strike into the heart of the Soviet Union. Soviet troops are waiting on the borders of Germany ready to drive into Europe. This is the closest the world has ever been to nuclear war. If the torpedo is launched it will almost certainly lead to the most destructive conflict to ever take place.

Soviet doctrine dictates that to use the ‘special weapon’ both captain and political officer must agree to its use. Both did. However, onboard B59 was a third officer, the chief of staff for the submarine flotilla and Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov did not agree to the launch. Vasili stood firm to not fire the weapon and the submarine, at this point low on batteries, would surface to receive further orders from Moscow.

This was the nearest that we have ever come to a nuclear, with only the decision of a single man under enormous pressure with imperfect information averting what would have been the most disastrous chain of events in human history.

In the following days after frantic backchannel communications, the crisis was resolved. The Soviet Union agreed to the withdrawal of its nuclear missiles from Cuba with similar American concessions in Turkey.

This was the apex of the Cold War. A Cold War that ended over 30 years ago. Long before any of us attending this school were born. But similar threats have not gone away. Nationalism is on the rise. Tensions between nations have been climbing steadily for well over a decade. Arming with nuclear weapons are becoming increasingly common.

Our future will continue to be decided by people who are able to see the bigger picture; by people who are able to recognise what is truly good, rather than what only seems to be good.

I doubt that anyone sitting in Chapel today will ever have such a responsibility on their shoulders; to be the final line of defense between us and thermonuclear war. However, this does not make our duty any less important. Each of us needs to play our part to ensure that no one else is ever in the position of Second Captain Vasili Arkhipov.

So, as we continue to learn, we need to take ourselves and our learning seriously. Take time to try to understand what is going on and to make informed judgments. This is because the choices we make — to understand what is going on, to make informed judgments and to do what is right — together have the power to change history and indeed save our world. As the reading from Proverbs puts it:

‘For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.’