Throughout history, humanity has faced numerous high-stakes moments that could have ended in total catastrophe. From nuclear close calls to military gambles, we'll explore the most dangerous risks that nearly destroyed everything, revealing how thin the line between survival and annihilation can be.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:09Today we're looking at perilous gambles in history which almost completely backfired.
00:13For this list, everything doesn't necessarily mean the whole world, but everything from
00:17the risk-taker's perspective.
00:29Black Saturday
00:43The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps the closest humans have come to mutually assured destruction.
00:48In 1962, the Cold War between America and the Soviets peaked.
00:53America placed nukes in Turkey and Italy, motivating the Soviets to put their own in
00:58Cuba.
00:59It turned into a Caribbean standoff.
01:16On Black Saturday, the U.S. Navy accidentally dropped practice depth charges on a Soviet
01:21nuclear submarine without telling them.
01:24The submarine nearly retaliated by launching their nukes, but thankfully one commander
01:29refused to give his consent.
01:30The whole crisis was an enormous risk that almost wiped out humanity.
01:47Nuclear bombs in Korea
01:49The Marines can consolidate to begin a fighting withdrawal out of the Chosin Trap.
01:54Hageroo's unfinished airfield, now the only means of getting out the growing number of
01:58wounded, must be completed and made operational.
02:02In 1950, the Korean War began, a proxy war between both sides of the Cold War.
02:07The North was communist, the South capitalist.
02:10Douglas MacArthur was one of the most famous American generals in history, and he was a
02:14major player in the war.
02:16It wasn't as easy to win as they expected, and in 1951 MacArthur was nearly authorized
02:22to use nuclear weapons on China.
02:24Thankfully, the Atomic Energy Commission didn't like this idea, and refused to give MacArthur
02:29this power.
02:30Truman preferred a less aggressive approach, and eventually relieved him from command to
02:34avoid nuclear war with China.
02:55Heraclius' reign Heraclius came to power after an extremely
02:59risky revolt against Phocas in 1610, a widely hated ruler.
03:04If failed, he would have been executed without a second thought, but he managed it.
03:08The Roman Empire was on life support at this point.
03:11By 627, the Sasanian Empire had captured Egypt, Syria, and most of Anatolia.
03:26Instead of surrendering, Heraclius bet everything on a counter-offensive.
03:31He restructured the economy, and personally led his army deep into Persia.
03:36If he had failed, the Roman Empire would have been annihilated from history.
03:40The Battle of Nineveh in 627 brought him to a decisive victory against the Sasanians.
03:46Without his actions, they might have fallen to the Sasanians, or been unable to completely
03:50resist the Arab conquests in the 630s.
03:54The Tet Offensive Now for a textbook example of a massive miscalculation.
04:08In 1968, during the brutal Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack
04:13on the South.
04:14It was a military defeat for the North, with most attacks being repelled.
04:18Still, its consequences were devastating.
04:21It revealed to the U.S. public just how unwinnable the war was.
04:25In 1967, General Westmoreland famously declared they could see the light at the end of the
04:31tunnel.
04:32You know, Vietnam reminded me of a child, the developing of a child.
04:38The laws of nature control the development of this child.
04:41The child has to sit up before it crawls, it has to crawl before it walks, it has to
04:46walk before it runs.
04:47This coordinated offensive from the Communists showed just how false this claim was.
04:53Support for the war plummeted, President Johnson was humiliated, and the U.S. would eventually
04:58leave in the early 70s.
05:00The enemy has very deceitfully taken advantage of the Tet ceasefire to launch an offensive
05:09all over the country.
05:12So far, we've had it pretty easy here.
05:16Caesar Crossing the Rubicon
05:24Now for a move so risky, it became an idiom.
05:27The Rubicon River was the boundary between Gaul and Italy, and Caesar's crossing was
05:32considered treason, since a general was forbidden from bringing legions into Roman territory
05:37without the Senate's approval.
05:39This was an act of civil war, and if defeated, he would have been executed, and his entire
05:43faction destroyed.
05:45The Roman Republic was in a fragile state, and Caesar was heavily outnumbered.
05:50A defeat would have caused further unrest, but he emerged victorious, marking the end
05:55of the Republic.
05:56He would eventually be killed by the Senate, but his heir Augustus finished what he started,
06:01and Rome entered a golden age.
06:02I can abide the law and surrender my arms to the Senate, and watch the Republic fall
06:07to tyranny and chaos, or I can go home with my sword in my hand and run those maniacs
06:16to the Tarpian Rock!
06:20The Penkovsky False Warning
06:22Oleg Penkovsky is a curious figure.
06:25He was profoundly arrogant.
06:27He may have had delusions of grandeur about both his own importance and where he could
06:32serve the Americans and the British.
06:34Colonel Oleg Penkovsky was a Cold War double agent.
06:37A lot of people credit him for defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis by providing the US with
06:42Soviet information.
06:43In 1962, he also sent a warning to Western intelligence agencies that the Soviet Union
06:49was about to launch a nuclear strike.
07:00He made these calls after the crisis ended.
07:03One was received by the CIA, the other by MI6.
07:07Both recipients believed the information wasn't genuine and decided to do nothing.
07:12This was an immense risk, since if it had been true, Europe and the US would have been
07:16annihilated.
07:17Thankfully, their instincts were correct, and nuclear war was averted.
07:31The Battle of Cannae
07:41Hannibal Barca was one of Rome's greatest enemies.
07:44He was a Carthaginian general whose father made him swear to destroy Rome.
07:49In 218 BC, he began the Second Punic War, crossing the Alps on elephants.
07:54This extreme risk nearly cost him his army, but once he made it into Italy, he quickly
07:58allied with the local Gallic tribes, who hated Rome.
08:15This helped him achieve multiple crushing defeats against the Romans.
08:19Most notable was at Cannae, when the Senate sent around 86,000 soldiers to fight Hannibal.
08:34He executed a double-envelopment tactic, and this cunning maneuver resulted in 50 to 70,000
08:40being slaughtered in a day.
08:42Rome's decision to fight Hannibal nearly cost them their republic, motivating their later
08:46decision to avoid fighting Hannibal at all costs.
08:591983 Soviet False Alarm
09:15Returning to the Cold War, in 1983, humanity had another near-miss with mutually assured
09:20destruction.
09:22In September, the Soviet warning system alerted them about five American ICBMs.
09:28Engineer Stanislav Petrov found it suspicious, essentially since only five nukes were launched,
09:33nowhere near enough to destroy the USSR.
09:35Rather than relay the warning, he decided to wait for confirmation.
09:49None came, because it was a malfunction.
09:51The missiles were just sunlight.
09:53If Petrov had relayed the message, then a counterattack would have developed into a
09:57full-scale nuclear war.
09:59Unfortunately, Petrov wasn't rewarded for his bravery, since officials were embarrassed
10:04about the false positive.
10:05The incident embarrassed the military command of the Soviet army.
10:10Petrov was made into a scapegoat.
10:12He was eventually forced into early retirement.
10:14The Battle of Manzikert
10:25The Eastern Roman Empire experienced a golden age during the medieval period, but its decline
10:29began in 1025, after the death of Basil II.
10:33This battle between the Romans and the Seljuks resulted in an overwhelming defeat, with many
10:38Roman forces, including Turkic mercenaries, in their ranks.
10:41Many refused to fight, or even defected, and the Seljuk Empire gained almost complete control
10:46over Anatolia.
10:48This almost destroyed their empire, but in 1081, Alexios Komnenos took the throne.
10:53He spent his reign dealing with crisis after crisis, and after almost 40 years on the throne,
10:59the Roman Empire was stable once again.
11:29The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne in military history.
11:37France was firmly under German control until June 1944, when nearly 160,000 Allied troops
11:44crossed the Channel.
11:45By summer's close, more than two million Allied soldiers were in France.
11:49Its success was vital to toppling Hitler's regime, but was far from guaranteed.
11:53A failure would have prolonged the war, giving the Nazis a stronger hold on Europe.
11:59You have to follow, and that supersedes everything, including your mothers.
12:03Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
12:04Even if you think the mission's full blast, sir?
12:07Especially if you think the mission's full blast.
12:09The Nazis would have strengthened their defenses, and a second invasion may have never succeeded.
12:14Thankfully, the risk paid off, and within weeks, Paris, and later France, were liberated.
12:19They locked me in a broken-down potting shed and told me to imagine I was a prisoner trying to escape.
12:24If I used that wall, I'd be shot.
12:26If I climbed that fence, I'd be electrocuted.
12:28If I trod here, there, anywhere, I'd be blown up by hidden mines.
12:32What do you think was the most precarious gamble in history?
12:35Leave it in the comments below.
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