Without giving away any national secrets I assume there are some sort of contigency plans in place in case the president can’t access the authorisation codes for whatever reason? Would it be treated in the same manner as if the president had been killed or incapacitated and the authorisation pass to the next lowest level in the chain of command?
There was a recent thread which mentioned that President Reagan’s code card was found inside his sock after he was being treated after an assassination attempt, if you ask me that’s a pretty good place to keep something as important as that!
Just from SCR4s link, without checking the OP link, the problem was discovered during the routine replacement of the codes. Clearly there’s a method, if not a timely one, to replace the codes regularly.
An acronym from my military time related to communication planning - PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency.) It’s kind of a thing to assume any single method of communication can be jammed, blown up, lost, etc.
For contingency planning I’d assume someone’s thought of the fact that an assassination attempt on the President may kill the President and/or code carrier. That attempt may involve the codes/football getting separated from the President. Not completely incompetent contingency planning would have a method to address that.
Then there’s the whole issue of the kind of investigation this likely triggered. Think abducted by aliens and anally probed as a less onerous choice just based on the pain I’ve seen for far less critical issues. Just because it happened once doesn’t mean the system is anything like it was then.
The link I provided answers the OP’s question: it says new access codes were issued to the President immediately when it was determined that the old one was missing. It also describes a more strict monthly check to confirm an aide is always with the President carrying the codes.
Can someone explain to me why the president needs codes to launch a nuclear attack? If the president of the United States wants to launch a nuclear attack, to whom does he need to verify his identity? It seems as pointless as asking for the president’s ID when he uses his credit card to pay for his burger at Five Guys.
“Mr President … Mr President … the Russians have launched thousands of thermo-nuclear missiles at us … where are the codes … where are the codes?”
"I have them right here … ‘loaf of bread, gallon of milk and pick up some Ho-Hos for Chelsea – Hill’ … uh oh … that explains why that staffer said she couldn’t find any Minuteman II’s … "
ETA: You’d think those junior officers at the bottom of the missile silos would have the codes too … but I’d be guessing about that
That’s actually the scenario I was envisaging, when seconds count you don’t want to have the President fumbling around trying to find his/her authorisation codes. What would happen in that situation?
{King Roland has given in to Dark Helmet’s threats, and is telling him the combination to the “air shield”]} Dark Helmet: So the combination is… one, two, three, four, five? That’s the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard in my life! That’s the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
{President Skroon enters} President Skroob: Did it work? Where’s the king? Dark Helmet: It worked, sir. We have the combination. President Skroob: Great. Now we can take every last breath of fresh air from Planet Druidia. What’s the combination? Colonel Sandurz: 1-2-3-4-5 President Skroob: 1-2-3-4-5? Colonel Sandurz: Yes! President Skroob: That’s amazing. I’ve got the same combination on my luggage.
{Dark Helmet and Colonel Sandurz look at each other}
The story about Bill Clinton was that he didn’t lose the codes, he lost access to the codes, which was in the form of a a card containing a difficult to remember combination for a suitcase.
This was just so that someone who would make a copy of the codes would have to get through the suitcase, and reveal that the the suitcase had been opened.
I’t just a suitcase, you can get it into with a saw… or sledge hammer and chisel and many ways. The card was for the feeling of security… so that the pres could look in the suitcase and be familiar with what it is…
I presume it is to prevent the officer carrying the “football” from starting WWWIII on his or her own by calling the Pentagon and saying “hey, the boss said to launch.” Instead, he or she would need whatever codes are in the “football” plus those on the President’s pocket card when communicating a launch order.
Just because it happened once doesn’t mean the system is anything like it was then.
