in 1995 a little-known incident very nearly triggered a nuclear war
for eight minutes the Russian military were put on high alert
and the Russian president contemplated launching a nuclear strike on the united
states the world could have ended that night
without anyone understanding what really happened
but strangely the blame for this close call lies not with Russia
or the united states it was Norway
people often don't realize this but Norway shares a border with Russia
because of this tensions between the two countries have always been delicate
in 1949 Norway became a founding member of NATO
meaning american missiles could potentially be housed here
as was the case when u.s missiles were placed in turkey
the soviets were not happy about such a threat from one of its neighbors
still today this remains an issue with both sides of the border witnessing a
military buildup things were not much different in the
1990s despite the collapse of a soviet union
many in the u.s government still saw Russia as a geopolitical rival
at first Russia felt differently hoping america and Russia could reshape the
world together as friends clearly this never happened and before
long both nations saw the other only with suspicion it's debatable which
side is responsible for this some people blame Russia some people
blame America i blame the Japanese and i think we all
know why that is what we know for certain is that this
mutual distrust almost brought a nuclear apocalypse
on January 25th 1995 a team of scientists in Norway launched a rocket
the purpose of that rocket was entirely peaceful to study a light phenomenon
called the aurora borealis such a rocket launch was nothing unusual
but this time the message informing Russia ahead of a
launch somehow got lost so when the rocket reached a certain
altitude the Russian military thought it was an american nuclear missile headed
for Moscow Russia's nuclear force were put on alert
and the president informed this might be it
in Russia they have a nuclear briefcase from which a nuclear strike can be
initiated remotely developed in the 1980s it goes
everywhere the president goes meaning at any time a nuclear attack can
be launched now the briefcase was taken to president
Yeltsin and for the first time ever activated for a real-life
situation his generals advised Yeltsin to order an
attack as an american missile was clearly on its
way for several minutes he carefully considered what to do
he had the authority and justification to launch a strike
but deep down he just didn't believe Russia was under attack
sure the us was no friend of Russia but they had no reason to launch a random
nuclear strike and so for eight long minutes he took no
action simply waiting for news luckily
good news is what followed the rocket began to move away from Russian airspace
following its trajectory to northern Norway and they realized the whole thing
was a misunderstanding about a week later the incident was
reported in the news and the world lands how vulnerable she
is it remains the only time Russia's nuclear briefcase was activated
and while less well known probably brought us closer to
destruction than the Cuban missile crisis
it's difficult to overstate how close to nuclear war we came
Boris Yeltsin was a notorious alcoholic he was always drunk
even when meeting other world leaders the guy was a legend
but really not for man you weren't holding a nuclear briefcase
yet by pure chance he was sober this night
that's a big part of this story because if Yeltsin had been drunk during the
Norwegian rocket incident it might have ended very differently