You many not be familiar with the name Vasili Arkhipov, but maybe you should be. He's the Soviet Navy man who stopped nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the '60s. Arkhipov, AKA the man who avoided nuclear war, somehow persuaded fellow officers not to fire at the United States during an extremely tense time. According to Thomas Blanton, former director of the National Security Archive, Arkhipov "saved the world."