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Tuesday, January 17 2006 @ 05:11 PM EST
NEWS RELEASE - ALL MEDIA, NGOs, Mail lists
THE MAN WHO AVERTED NUCLEAR WAR
Special Tribute at the United Nations
Thursday January 19th, 1-3 p.m. Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium
The Association of World Citizens (AWC), the War and Peace Foundation, The NGO Committee on Disarmament and Statement Films are hosting the visit of former Russian Colonel, Stanislav Petrov to New York City for a two-week visit beginning on January 14.
At a ceremony at the United Nations he will formally receive the World Citizen Award, first presented in Moscow on 21 May 2004, as tribute for a unique act of heroism that saved the world.
On the night of September 26, 1983, Petrov was duty officer at Serpukhov, the Soviet Union’s main nuclear command and control center monitoring incoming signals from satellites. Suddenly monitors indicated U.S. missiles were heading toward the Soviet Union. Petrov’s duty was to report the apparent attack to command headquarters to initiate an immediate counter attack. This was a period of high tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. President Reagan was calling the Soviets the "Evil Empire." The Russian military had shot down a Korean passenger jet just three weeks earlier, and the U.S. and NATO were organizing a joint military exercise in Europe.
In the midst of the chaos created by the attack warnings Petrov, convinced that the alarm must be false, made an historic decision not to alert higher authorities. Had Petrov cracked, and triggered a response, Soviet missiles would have rained down on U.S. cities. In turn, that would have brought a devastating response from the Pentagon.
Petrov’s judgment proved correct. It was a computer error. Petrov said later: "In principle, a nuclear war could have broken out. The whole world could have been destroyed." Bruce Blair, President of the Center for Defense Information, a leading expert on nuclear weapons and a former Minuteman Missile Launch Officer said: "I think this is the closest we’ve come to accidental nuclear war." Yet Petrov's heroic act was neither acknowledged nor rewarded. He was dismissed from the Army with a pension that would prove nearly worthless. His health deteriorated due to the intense stress of the incident. His wife died of cancer, and he now lives alone in a second-floor flat in a small town near Moscow.
Not until 2004 did events take a positive turn with the World Citizen Award to Petrov in Moscow and a documentary movie on his life that will be completed during the New York visit. Mr. Petrov’s trip is organized by Statement Films, the Danish company making a documentary movie.
THE NUCLEAR MADNESS CONTINUES The catastrophic danger that Colonel Petrov faced in 1983 remains unchanged. More than 4,000 U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads are still on hair-trigger alert, ready for launch in a few minutes notice that could destroy both countries in an hour. Such a doomsday scenario could be triggered by accident miscalculation, or error.
For more on Petrov see CBS report: Notes attached
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/world/main618901.shtml
Please note that a UN pass is required to attend the January 19th event.
UN pass and Media contact: Doug Mattern worldcit@best.com
Tel: 650 - 326 1409 or 415 - 541 9601
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