The two man rule ensures that the SECDEF verify the Presidential launch order.
Contrary to this moronic article, the 1979 computer chip episode did not nearly put us in a war with the soviets. In my mind, the closest we came to nuclear war was the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. A somewhat close second is the 1983 Soviet reaction to NATO’s Able Archer exercise.That would have been a far deadlier attack than what would have occurred in 1962. By 1983, the Soviets had thousands of strategic and tactical warheads at their disposal.
I wonder if the writer of this smut piece had recently watched the famous scene from the “Dead Zone” where an insane President Greg Stillson orders a nuclear attack from his lair.
The 1979 event was called down almost immediately, the July 1980 event was also called down very quickly and neither got close to release of any weapons. I was a missileer keyturner on alert both times.
I have subscribed to Scientific American since 1964, but in recent years they have gone too far in the direction of Lysenko science and political propaganda.
They have no earthly idea how the NCA and Nuclear release is accomplished nor the layers of safeguards built in. It is not the sole decision of the president; there is no button.