Five Minutes to Sow Peace

On September 26, 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov sat alone at his post inside Serpukhov-15, a secret Soviet command bunker south of Moscow. Just after midnight, the early-warning system screamed to life. The screen displayed what every Cold War officer dreaded: an incoming American nuclear missile. Then a second. Then three more. Five missiles, the system reported, streaking toward the Soviet Union.…