Over the weekend, I watched the movie The Courier, a true-story drama about the smuggling of Soviet Union secrets during the Cold War. A senior Russian official, Oleg Penkovsky, had grave concerns about Chairman Khrushchev’s stability and intent, so he volunteered to leak nuclear secrets to the West. Greville Wynne, a British businessman, was recruited for the spy effort to avoid the suspicion which naturally enveloped any government personnel. Wynne could frequently travel to the USSR under the guise of doing business and couriered over 5000 top-secret military documents before being discovered.
The film centers around the bravery of the two men who valued avoiding nuclear annihilation ahead of their personal risk. Ultimately, Penkovsky paid with his life and Wynne endured years in a Russian isolation cell but they are credited with avoiding a 1962 nuclear showdown in Cuba.
The sacrifice of the two men can serve as a reminder to all of us to put the interests of the whole above our own comfort. Would you be brave enough to help avoid a catastrophe by committing international espionage? I doubt I would. But we can be brave without fearing our lives — and with that luxury comes the obligation to do so. Speak up when someone is facing isolation. Step in when you see aggression. Apologize. Define and hold people to organizational values. Question things that don’t seem right. Contribute to causes that advocate for human dignity. Volunteer to help others.
And work for peace. The next nuclear showdown may not have a Penkovsky and Wynne to avert it.
