image via ScreenInvasion and Wikipedia
For decades, the Soviet Union and United States engaged in a stare down, waiting for the other to make a move. One suspicious event, and a hailstorm of nuclear missiles weren't far away. We came close to nuclear warfare more times than most would like to admit. And with the security systems we had in place, boy are we lucky the missiles weren't ever launched.
Wait, what?
image via TheRiskyShift
"He double dared me!"
Fresh off of the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160. One key piece of this legislation was the installation of the Permissive Action Link on all nuclear missiles. It's a small device attached to each missile that ensures the missile is not launched without the proper code entered into it. Seems pretty sensible, just one more layer of security to stop the world from ending, who could possible argue against that?
As it turns out, the US Strategic Air Command was highly against them, arguing that it would ruin the efficiency of launching nuclear missiles and served as just another hindrance towards their mission of destroying the earth. So after installing all of them, they set every code for the PAL to "00000000".
Please note that at the same time bypassing a PAL code was advertised as like "performing a tonsillectomy whilst entering the patient from the wrong end."
image via TonsilStoneRemoval
"Hand them a scalpel and anyone can be a doctor nowadays."
And then just because it wasn't easy enough, they ensured that the "code" was written on checklists handed out willy-nilly to airmen, making sure to note that if any number was entered aside from "0" then the missile wouldn't launch. Oh, and did I mention that this was the only mechanical impediment to shooting off the missiles?
For about 20 years until they were changed, launching US nuclear missiles was so easy that this guy could have done it:
image via Billy Bones
Rest easy.
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