During the Cuban Missile Crisis, submarine fleet commander Vasili Arkhipov, acting alone, blocked a nuclear torpedo launch at US aircraft carrier Randolph, which would have impelled a nuclear war. US Navy destroyers located a Foxtrot submarine in international waters near Cuba, and dropped practice depth charges to force the sub to surface. Sub B-59 was out of touch with the Kremlin, and was also too deep to hear any radio, so the sub's officers did not know if war was underway or not. B-59's captain and its political commissar both wanted to launch a torpedo.
—David Stevens