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N0KFQ > TODAY 30.08.14 16:58l 58 Lines 2659 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 34776_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 30
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<VE3UIL<KQ0I<N0KFQ
Sent: 140830/1455Z 34776@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.60
Aug 30, 1963:
The U.S.-Soviet "hot line" goes into operation
Two months after signing an agreement to establish a
24-hour-a-day "hot line" between Moscow and Washington, the
system goes into effect. The hot line was supposed to help speed
communication between the governments of the United States and
the Soviet Union and help prevent the possibility of an
accidental war.
In June 1963, American and Russian representatives agreed to
establish a so-called "hot line" between Moscow and Washington.
The agreement came just months after the October 1962 Cuban
missile crisis, in which the United States and Soviet Union came
to the brink of nuclear conflict. It was hoped that speedier and
more secure communications between the two nuclear superpowers
would forestall such crises in the future. In August 1963, the
system was ready to be tested. American teletype machines had
been installed in the Kremlin to receive messages from
Washington; Soviet teletypes were installed in the Pentagon.
(Contrary to popular belief, the hot line in the United States is
in the Pentagon, not the White House.) Both nations also
exchanged encoding devices in order to decipher the messages.
Messages from one nation to another would take just a matter of
minutes, although the messages would then have to be translated.
The messages would be carried by a 10,000-mile long cable
connection, with "scramblers" along the way to insure that the
messages could not be intercepted and read by unauthorized
personnel. On August 30, the United States sent its first message
to the Soviet Union over the hot line: "The quick brown fox
jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890." The message used
every letter and number key on the teletype machine in order to
see that each was in working order. The return message from
Moscow was in Russian, but it indicated that all of the keys on
the Soviet teletype were also functioning.
The hot line was never really necessary to prevent war between
the Soviet Union and the United States, but it did provide a
useful prop for movies about nuclear disaster, such as Fail Safe
and Dr. Strangelove. Its significance at the time was largely
symbolic. The two superpowers, who had been so close to mutual
nuclear destruction in October 1962, clearly recognized the
dangers of miscommunication or no communication in the modern
world.
Though the Cold War is over, the hot line continues in operation
between the United States and Russia. It was supplemented in 1999
by a direct secure telephone connection between the two
governments.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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