For nearly 20 years, the secret code to authorize launching U.S. nuclear missiles, and starting World War III, was terrifyingly simple and even noted down on a checklist.
From 1962, when John F Kennedy instituted PAL encoding on nuclear weapons, until 1977, the combination to fire the devastating missiles at the height of the Cold War was just 00000000.
Now I bet it at least includes a capital letter and a special character like @,#,$,%,&
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ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time--in what seems like a distant galaxy that was far, far away--I worked in the Navy as part of the intelligence community. Please do not point out the oxymoron: military intelligence. I could have told you tales about the follies and lunacies within government--especially within the top-secret operations. What it all meant to me, in the final analysis, was this: I can never be too surprised about government or military incompetence, particularly in matters involving classified materials and operations. BTW, if you read more about the Vietnam era (i.e., the Kennedy and Johnson administrations), you might be even more shocked about how close we came to being involved in an end-of-the-world nuclear scenario. If you want a small peek into the issues, look at two recent books: Larry Sabato's The Kennedy Half-Century, and Jack Cheevers' Act of War.
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