Did the US President Ever Actually Have a ‘Big Red Phone’ Connected Directly to Moscow?

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[tiffanymims]

As a veteran that worked in a command post on a military base, there are red phones that are direct connections to certain places on base. The base general had a red phone (with 5 buttons for different offices on base), and the command post had a red direct line (the button on a massive phone board) that connected him to us. We communicated with the Pentagon via encrypted messages.

So, there are red phones or red phone line buttons that are very high-priority calls in the military. We were required to answer that line before the 2nd ring. It did not matter who we were on the phone with or busy doing that red line rings; you immediately answered it or got in trouble.

[joeherrjr]

I visited the Pentagon in 1981 and saw the teletype room, where I was able to send a test message on the English teletype. A response to the test was received on the Russian teletype. Worked exactly as Simon described.

[jasonrodgers]

Shortly after this, in 1966, a matching pair of red desk phones were installed on the desks of both millionaire Bruce Wayne and Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon.

[dragons_advocate]

"Text communication was considered less vulnerable to misinterpretation"... Hah! If I had a dollar for every time I got into trouble because the tone of an email I have sent was misinterpreted, I could buy a really nice bottle of whiskey, maybe even two. 😂

[amaccama]

I have a mental picture of Obama's anger interpreter dude on the red phone. 😆😅🤣😂😂😂😂😂

[MrYTGuy]

We all know that red phone went from commissioner Gordon's office to the batcave

[kiplambert]

How many here are old enough to remember rotary phones, dialing zero to speak with an operator, and party lines?

[invicta]

Hey Simon, only posting this here because it's your most recent video. But I was just watching the "How Tall can you get" entry from Nine months ago. Idea for a follow up...

You CAN get significantly taller or shorter as an adult because of environmental factors. Either through extensive time in space, or walking a lot. Especially while carrying weight. Anthropologists can tell if a tribe was nomadic by looking at the length and density of leg bones. I myself am 3 inches shorter than I was 15 years ago, just because of a life of heavy lifting and a lot of walking (while being over 250 pounds.)

Its entirely possible that if you shoot one twin into space and have the other carry 100 lb sacks cross country for ten years...Space Twin could end up six inches taller than Earth Twin.

Granted, Space Twin would have zero muscle and the bone density of paper mache, while Earth Twin is made of solid cast iron. But there WOULD be a massive difference in height between them.

Just a thought if you ever want to cover it. Keep up the great content!

[xliquidflames]

That is some seriously strong beard game. Crikey. It's like your hair got tired of being on top and moved down to your face. Much respect.

[rayceeya]

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
It's something called a pangram. It's a phrase or sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet. It you grew up in the 80s or 90s and took typing classes you probably typed it about 1000 times.

[robertwalker-smith]

It's noteworthy that the missiles in Cuba were a clear response to US missiles in Turkey - but few Americans remember that.

[uggligr]

Obviously the "red telephone" should be a global network connecting such entities as Ethiopia/Eritrea, China/Vietnam, India/Pakistan, on and on. Why not symbolize the system with a red telephone? The symbolism, as Simon points out, is important.

[drboze]

"Hello?... Uh... Hello D- uh hello Dmitri? Listen uh uh I can't
hear too well. Do you suppose you could turn the music down just a
little?... Oh-ho, that's much better... yeah... huh... yes... Fine, I
can hear you now, Dmitri... Clear and plain and coming through fine...
I'm coming through fine, too, eh?... Good, then... well, then, as you
say, we're both coming through fine... Good... Well, it's good that
you're fine and... and I'm fine... I agree with you, it's great to be
fine... a-ha-ha-ha-ha... Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always
talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb...
The _bomb_, Dmitri... The _hydrogen_ bomb!... Well now, what happened
is... uh... one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he
went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny.
And, uh... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he
did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country... Ah... Well, let
me finish, Dmitri... Let me finish, Dmitri... Well listen, how do you
think I feel about it?... Can you _imagine_ how I feel about it,
Dmitri?... Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello? _Of
course_ I like to speak to you!... _Of course_ I like to say hello!...
Not now, but anytime, Dmitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something
terrible has happened... It's a _friendly_ call. Of course it's a
friendly call... Listen, if it wasn't friendly... you probably wouldn't
have even got it..."

[kclcmdrkai]

The Soviet Invasion of 1979 was during President Carter's time period - 8:15

[derekstaff]

I wonder if those communications are kept on record (I’d probably a rather highly secret one), or if, in the interest of confidentiality, those communications are completely destroyed.

[thegunslinger]

"Am I to understand the Russian ambassador. Is to be admitted entrance to the.. War Room?"

[akizeta]

Pronunciation check: _Kosygin_ is usually pronounced with a stress on the second syllable: "kos-EE-gin" (hard G).

[lisanickerson]

More reliable? Talk about playing a game of telephone. We've all played that and in the end what we said changed drastically.

[prxZen]

Having multiple lines of direct communication is definitely not a bad idea. It's not unrealistic that a situation demanding the use of this hotline, may involve a disruption in other means of communication - wether the reason be warfare, terrorism or natural disaster.

[franklefebver]

Now that is genius. with many people in between the communication taking out the feeling and emotion of the people sending the message so not to be misinterpreted.