Interesting story and I’ve read about it in the past.
Soviet doctrine may have been an immediate counterattack but Stanislav thought something just didn’t seem right. Why would the U.S. launch 5 ICBMs......and then stop? It didn’t figure to him so he held up a response until it became clear that this was a false alert and that no launches had actually occurred. Thank goodness.
He should have been given a medal. One thing that hampered the effectiveness of the Soviet and Nazi militaries was that their officers were frozen by fear of acting without direction, which meant they were slow to react. Americans always took initiative. This guy was willing to think for himself, and he did it quickly and under intense pressure. We should give him a medal, too.
Isn’t it strange that only the leaders of countries are the wild eyed crazy ideologues and that the common people who support and elect them are the ones with common sense?