# The President's Red Phone

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-red-phone/32840>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 12, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-red-phone/32840 "2000-09-12T01:13:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-red-phone/32840/1 "2000-09-12T01:13:45Z")

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    - Was the President’s red phone actually made red or painted?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-red-phone/32840/2 "2000-09-12T01:37:48Z")

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Well, the “red phone” – it you mean the hotline to the Soviet Union, isn’t red or a phone at all. It’s a teletype.

I don’t believe the nuclear codes are done by phone, either.

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**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-red-phone/32840/3 "2000-09-12T02:02:59Z")

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In the Barksdale AFB museum, there is an actual red phone from the Cold War days. Looks like it was cast from red Bakelite.  
I’m pretty sure the actual codes for the Bomb weren’t done by phone, but the “OH SH!T” get-'em-off-the-ground order was.