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Outlook: Could This Man Have Saved the World?

Stanislav Petrov

13/07/2015

Could This Man Have Saved the World?

BBC World Service - Outlook, Could This Man Have Saved the World?

Stanislav Petrov; the man who had to decide whether to launch a nuclear strike.

Stanislav Petrov was on duty at a surveillance centre near Moscow when the signal came that America had launched a nuclear strike - we hear what Stanislav did next.

Could Stanislav Petrov be credited with saving the world?  He says he doesn't deserve that reputation - but you be the judge.  In 1983, when Stanislav was a software engineer in the Soviet army - the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in a nuclear stand-off.  The system was that if one country launched missiles at the other, there would immediately be a counter-attack - resulting in their mutual destruction.  One night Stanislav was on duty at a surveillance centre near Moscow, monitoring alerts for incoming enemy nuclear missiles when he received the signal that the USA had launched an attack.  He tells us what he did next.  

Monty Roberts has spent a lifetime with horses.  It's been a remarkable ride - he was Elizabeth Taylor's stunt double in the film National Velvet, and the non-violent method of "breaking in" horses he pioneered was the start of a long working relationship with Queen Elizabeth.  Today he uses his horses to help military veterans, and other emergency services workers suffering from post traumatic stress, to get better.  

In the Turkish city of Istanbul, Mohammad Bitar is known as the "father of the Syrians".  The 50-year-old founded a chain of restaurants which serve Syrian food, and give work to hundreds of Syrian refugees who've fled the war in their homeland.  Mohammad himself is a refugee.  In 2012 he left Damascus where he was a successful businessman, after the regime targeted his family.  We hear his story. 

Roberto Ampuero is one of Chile's leading novelists, famous for his semi-autobiographical works as well as his detective fiction.  As a member of the Communist youth, he was exiled by the Pinochet regime, but later became Minister for Culture in Chile's first right-wing government after the return of democracy.   

(Picture: Stanislav Petrov
Picture credit: David H.  Still taken from The Man Who Saved The World produced by Statement Film)

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