From the Blog, “A Quick ‘I Love You’”

Let’s focus on the red telephone hotline: On June 20, 1963 there was a direct line established, popularly known as the hotline, between the White House and the Kremlin. The invention was facilitated by the fact that during the missile crisis in Cuba in early 1962, it took nearly 12 hours to receive and decode vital messages between the Soviets and Americans, which almost led to a total nuclear disaster for both countries. However, the red telephone hotline was neither a single line nor was it particularly red; it was a teletype system that employed encryption in order to communicate directly. The keys were sent via a diplomatic bag.

In the Cold War, the proverbial phone became something of a legend, while film and television made it seem sacred. Additionally, the well-known TV series Batman from 1966 gave it the final push of realism that it needed, with the hotline that connected Mr. Wayne’s mansion with Commissioner Gordon’s office.

If that happened in fantasy, as people said, of course it was happening in reality. Some claimed that the apparatus was under a bell jar and that upon only lifting the handset, the president could hear the voice of his Russian counterpart. The press was commissioned to create these legends. The vox populi never said if the hotline was used in afternoons of boredom, just for a friendly conversation between the two presidents of both countries.

Think about it: if there had been this hotline, just imagine how busy it would be in a great crisis…Putting ironies aside, the only detail of a nuclear war is that the one who attacks first is not guaranteed to win the war; it only assures mass death, genocide, and the first of civilization (and the last). So far there have been two bombs dropped on civilians, and 140 tested in remote and secret locations, and about 60,000, of poor standing, are being stored, becoming old and increasing the risk of accidental explosion.