JOHN STEINBACH, johnsteinbach1@verizon.net
Steinbach is co-founder of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area. He is organizing an online teach-in tonight at 7 p.m. ET on the current nuclear crisis featuring several nuclear experts. He can also field and arrange interviews with media outlets.
Steinbach notes: “Thursday, October 27 marks the 60th anniversary of the day Vasily Arkhipov single-handedly saved the world from nuclear annihilation. Off the coast of Cuba, the U.S. Navy was attacking the nuclear torpedo equipped Soviet submarine B-59 with depth charges. The ship’s captain gave the order to fire the torpedoes at the Navy flotilla. As the flotilla commander, Vasily Arkhipov countermanded the order, thus preventing a likely thermo-nuclear exchange. Today, Vasily Arkhipov is known as ‘The Man Who Saved the World.’”
See this piece in the Guardian from 2017: “Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war honoured with prize.”
The speakers at the teach-in this evening in addition to Steinbach are:
• Patrick Mazza was recently featured on an IPA news release: “How Nuclear Wars Can Start: Nuclear War Exercise, Then and Now.”
• Jackie Cabasso is the executive director of Western States Legal Foundation and North American coordinator for Mayors for Peace. She has been a leader in the global disarmament movement since the 1980s.
• Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research is co-founder of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee. He is the principal author of Nuclear Wastelands and other books.
Steinbach added: “According to many experts, the world is again on the verge of nuclear war. The immediate cause is the Ukraine war bringing Russia and the U.S. to the precipice of direct military confrontation, but the issues of climate disruption, resource depletion, a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape, and the threat of impending worldwide economic collapse greatly exacerbate the threat. The Doomsday Clock is currently set to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest ever!”