How many times has the world/humanity/civilisation (probably civilisation at the largest) been saved from disaster by the actions of one person?
There might be a few unknown Vasilis/Stanislavs, and a couple of actions/inactions of leaders (e.g., Kennedy) that prevented a world-wide disaster, but before the atomic age it would be hard to single-handedly cause a civilization-threatening disaster.
This has not stopped writers and movie-makers to explore the trope ad nauseam though...
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, LeMay clashed again with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara, arguing that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear missile sites in Cuba.
He opposed the naval blockade and, after the end of the crisis, suggested that Cuba be invaded anyway, even after the Russians agreed to withdraw. LeMay called the peaceful resolution of the crisis “the greatest defeat in our history”.
Unknown to the U.S., the Soviet field commanders in Cuba had been given authority to launch—the only time such authority was delegated by higher command. They had twenty nuclear warheads for medium-range R-12 ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. cities (including Washington) and nine tactical nuclear missiles. If Soviet officers had launched them, many millions of U.S. citizens would have been killed. The ensuing SAC retaliatory thermonuclear strike would have killed roughly one hundred million Soviet citizens, and brought nuclear winter to much of the Northern Hemisphere.
Kennedy refused LeMay’s requests, however, and the naval blockade was successful.
When General LeMay was named vice chief of staff of the Air Force in 1957, General Power became commander in chief of SAC and was promoted to four-star rank. But, although Power was LeMay’s protégé, LeMay himself was quoted as privately saying that Power was mentally “not stable” and a “sadist”.
When RAND proposed a counterforce strategy, which would require SAC to restrain itself from striking Soviet cities in the beginning of a war, Power countered with:
Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win!
It seems unlikely that we would have been looking at a missile crisis in the first place if Nixon had been president, so it’s not clear that Kennedy decreased existential risk on net.
There might be a few unknown Vasilis/Stanislavs, and a couple of actions/inactions of leaders (e.g., Kennedy) that prevented a world-wide disaster, but before the atomic age it would be hard to single-handedly cause a civilization-threatening disaster.
This has not stopped writers and movie-makers to explore the trope ad nauseam though...
Favouring nomination of Kennedy.
Curtis LeMay was Chief of Strategic Air Command:
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, LeMay clashed again with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara, arguing that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear missile sites in Cuba.
He opposed the naval blockade and, after the end of the crisis, suggested that Cuba be invaded anyway, even after the Russians agreed to withdraw. LeMay called the peaceful resolution of the crisis “the greatest defeat in our history”.
Unknown to the U.S., the Soviet field commanders in Cuba had been given authority to launch—the only time such authority was delegated by higher command. They had twenty nuclear warheads for medium-range R-12 ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. cities (including Washington) and nine tactical nuclear missiles. If Soviet officers had launched them, many millions of U.S. citizens would have been killed. The ensuing SAC retaliatory thermonuclear strike would have killed roughly one hundred million Soviet citizens, and brought nuclear winter to much of the Northern Hemisphere.
Kennedy refused LeMay’s requests, however, and the naval blockade was successful.
One more thermonuclear anecdote from Wikipedia:
It seems unlikely that we would have been looking at a missile crisis in the first place if Nixon had been president, so it’s not clear that Kennedy decreased existential risk on net.