W
henever the president of the United
States leaves the White House, he is
shadowed by one of five aides. Drawn
from each branch of the military, they
hold a rank of major or higher as well
as a Yankee White security clearance,
and they hold the fate of the world in
their hands in the form of the nuclear
football that gives the U.S. president,
as the nation’s commander in chief,
the ability to obliterate his enemies.
In March of 2019, the Federation of
American Scientists estimated that
the United States has an inventory of
6,185 nuclear warheads. Meanwhile,
the government stated that 1,365 of
them were deployed on 656 ICBMs,
SLBMs, and strategic bombers.IS THERE REALLY A
“BIG RED BUTTON”?
The nuclear football is actually a Zero
Halliburton aluminum briefcase that’s
contained in a black leather “jacket.”
Although its official appellation is the
“president’s emergency satchel,” the
football gets its informal name from
an early version of America’s plan for
nuclear war that was code-named
“Dropkick.” In contrast to numerous
characterizations by Hollywood, the
football does not contain a “big red
button.” The contents are designed
to ide ntif y the holde r a s an authorize duser and to communicate with the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National
Military Command Center. Inside the
football, the president would see a
numbe r of militar y options with pre set
war plans for choosing targets and
setting objectives, from “selective
destruction” to a full-scale attack.
Former senior military aide Colonel
Buzz Patterson has compared the
documents to the menu of a fast food
restaurant: “It’s like picking one from
Column A and two from Column B,”
he says. Moscow plus Pyongyang
and Tehran, for example.
The “menu” system was devised
under Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S.
president, who was a Naval Academy
graduate selected for the nuclear
submarine program and did graduate
work in reac tor te chnology a s well a s
nuclear physics. He thought that the
instructions in the football were too
complicated: If America were really
being attacked with rocket-borne
nuclear weapons, there would be no
time to waste. The president would
have to quickly decide whether he
trusts the technology and judgment
of his intelligence services and then
respond immediately to protect the
American people. The psychological
pressure of such a moment is very
hard to imagine, but President John
F. Kennedy got to experience some
of the high drama in the fall of 19 62...
That year, in the early morning of
October 16, America’s 35th president
was shown images of Soviet missile
bases that were nearing completion
on the nearby island of Cuba. Armed
with nuclear missiles, Cuba would’ve
had the ability to destroy America’s
capital city and most of its important
industrial citie s in a mat te r of minute s.The “Cuban Missile Crisis” was the
hottest moment of the Cold War—and
it also marked the birth of the nuclear
football. Although the U.S. had a huge
advantage in terms of the number of
nuclear warheads and the means of
delivering them, the full-scale use of
these weapons would have led to the
annihilation of both the attacker and
the defender (a result of the doctrine
of mutually assured destruction, or
MAD). But were the Soviets planning
to commence a preemptive attack to
destroy America’s ability to respond?
With nuclear weapons now being
installed on the country’s doorstep,
the generals were extremely anxious.
And Kennedy had several important
questions regarding the release of
America’s nuclear weapons: “What
would I say to the Joint War Room to
launch an immediate nuclear strike?”
In addition: “How would the person
who received my instructions verify
them?” The answers he heard were
troubling: The system lacked control
me chanisms to preve nt mistake s and
misunderstandings that could result
in the destruction of the entire world.
Up until the Cuban Missile Crisis, the
most frightful weapon ever invented
was not securely protected against
misuse, though almost all presidents
from Ha r r y S. Tr uman on down to the
current titleholder were aware of the
“nuclear taboo” conditioned by the
horrific effects, ethical concerns, and
the repercussions of global opinion
if nuclear weapons were used again.
Tensions continued to rise, and a
week after the Cuban Missile Crisis
began, the alert level of the Strategic
Air Command that’s responsible for
the nation’s nuclear air defenses was
raised to DEFCON-2, for the only time“WHAT WOULD I SAY TO
LAUNCH A NUCLEAR STRIKE?”