MENU FOR
DOOMSDAY
THE BRIEFCASE
THAT CONTAINS AThe football doesn’t have a trigger or a “big red button.”
It is a communications device for contacting the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and the National Military Command
Center. In the event of nuclear war, a president would
review a menu of preset plans to decide the targets
and dimensions of the attack. To ensure continuity
of the nation’s defense, the vice president has a
duplicate of the nuclear football.
NEVER LEAVES
THE MAN WHO
The nuclear football is carried by one of a series
of rotating military aides who are always with the
president, traveling in the same vehicle, taking
the same elevator, and staying on the same floor
of a hotel. These fi ve aides are all high-ranking
military offi cers, drawn from all fi ve branches of
service, and they have undergone the country’s
most stringent background check (Yankee White)
as well as extensive psychological testing.ideasanddiscoveries.com 31 May 2020