04-29-2016, 04:02 PM
Yes, I believe it is true. I read about them accidentally dropping the nuclear bombs a while ago. There were other similar accidents.
Part of the problem was that Mutually Assured Destruction required the USA and USSR to get their nuclear bombs in the air within minutes. That led to a culture where missiles were on hair-trigger alert and safety was compromised. JFK was aware of this and instructed the navy to put an extra code lock in the launch process to make it safer. I understand the Navy didn't much like the idea, so set the code to 0000.
There was a very scary episode in the 80s when a USA/NATO military exercise in Europe was nearly misinterpreted as the build up to a pre-emptive strike. There was a lot of pressure in the USSR to launch first. Luckily they didn't. The exercise was called Able Archer (you can look it up) and it is a plot point in the drama Deutschland 83.
Scary stuff!
Part of the problem was that Mutually Assured Destruction required the USA and USSR to get their nuclear bombs in the air within minutes. That led to a culture where missiles were on hair-trigger alert and safety was compromised. JFK was aware of this and instructed the navy to put an extra code lock in the launch process to make it safer. I understand the Navy didn't much like the idea, so set the code to 0000.
There was a very scary episode in the 80s when a USA/NATO military exercise in Europe was nearly misinterpreted as the build up to a pre-emptive strike. There was a lot of pressure in the USSR to launch first. Luckily they didn't. The exercise was called Able Archer (you can look it up) and it is a plot point in the drama Deutschland 83.
Scary stuff!