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This transcript was created utilizing speech recognition software program. Whereas it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it could include errors. Please overview the episode audio earlier than quoting from this transcript and electronic mail transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.
[MUSIC PLAYING] I’m Invoice Hennigan. I’m a nationwide safety author for Instances Opinion part. And I’m the lead author in our new nuclear collection, On the Brink. In the US, it’s as much as one particular person whether or not or not the nation goes to nuclear conflict. Ought to anyone particular person have that a lot energy? I lately went to US Strategic Command, which is close to Omaha, Nebraska. And it’s there the place the US army oversees all nuclear forces the world over in addition to nuclear weapons right here in the US.
- invoice hennigan
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So, actually, what I’m right here for is twofold, to grasp how the command works — notably if there was an order to launch a nuclear strike.
The US Strategic Command is a sprawling base. And it’s extremely guarded, in fact. I used to be capable of discuss to army officers in one of many convention rooms upstairs. In fact, it’s a tough topic to speak about as a result of a lot of it’s secret.
- invoice hennigan
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If there have been to be a presidential order to launch, what would that course of appear like?
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I can discuss on the broadest stage that there are people who must be linked to one another and people individuals make choices. And we roll out on that call.
There’s only a lot that they gained’t get into.
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It will get into the categorized setting — It’s very tough to speak about that.
Afterward, they took me right down to one thing they name the battle deck. So, the battle deck is 45 toes under the headquarters constructing. With a view to get there, you are taking an elevator and then you definately stroll to what’s basically a safety checkpoint. There are armed guards. And when you acquire entry, you must stroll by means of the turnstile.
And there’s a vault-like door such as you see within the films with banks. And also you stroll by means of that. And then you definately stroll by means of a labyrinth of hallways. They usually took me to the battle deck itself.
So whenever you stroll within the room, it seems like a theater. The workstations are organized stadium fashion and a semi-circle across the 15 LED screens that glow with real-time data and maps. There are three timers hanging from the ceiling. If a president had been to order the launch of a nuclear weapon, the timers would begin ticking —
[TICKING]
— alerting everybody within the room how lengthy they’ve, how lengthy earlier than our weapons hit the enemy, how lengthy earlier than the enemy’s weapons hit us, and the way lengthy earlier than the constructing and all of the individuals in it are destroyed by incoming nuclear-tipped missiles.
Within the occasion that an adversary does attempt to assault the US with an intercontinental ballistic missile, the flight time is about half-hour. And a president has about quarter-hour to resolve whether or not or to not launch a nuclear strike.
We’ve a nuclear monarchy right here solely the president could make the choice on whether or not or to not use nuclear weapons or not. And that’s in contrast to every other side of the army. The only real authority that we now have began with the daybreak of the atomic age.
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The pure energy of the universe is harnessed within the new atomic bomb. Its super —
When President Harry Truman determined to make use of nuclear weapons in World Conflict II on Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki —
- harry truman
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A short while in the past, an American aeroplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy.
— the ability stayed with the president at the moment. The pondering was that you simply don’t wish to delegate authority right down to lower-level army officers to resolve whether or not or not the world goes to nuclear conflict. So the choice stayed with the president. And all through the Chilly Conflict, it made sense as effectively as a result of it was accomplished for expediency. You needed to have the ability to reply rapidly if an adversary attacked you.
And so moderately than having this wringing of arms deliberations, the president may resolve instantly whether or not or to not launch that assault.
For all sensible functions, it doesn’t make a variety of sense to introduce extra individuals to that decision-making course of. I imply, anyone with a partner can say, it takes greater than quarter-hour to resolve what you wish to eat for dinner at night time. Nonetheless, in the case of first use, launching the primary strike, it’s unacceptable that one particular person has that a lot energy to resolve whether or not or to not use the weapons.
There’s a lengthy historical past of this being debated in Congress. Within the ‘70s, after President Richard Nixon left workplace, it grew to become recognized that he was typically drunk in the course of the finish of his presidency. And in the course of the Trump presidency, once more, this was a priority about whether or not or not Trump may launch a nuclear strike with none deliberations.
Lately, I requested the president’s nationwide safety advisor Jake Sullivan about this. And he stated that this was a subject below overview, that they’re occupied with including a layer of oversight to the presidential energy. However as he informed me, it’s very advanced. And there’s not a simple repair, at the least not one which they see in the intervening time.
We’ve had, for the final 25 years or so, a interval of relative peace in the case of nuclear points. However as we’ve seen in Ukraine and within the Korean Peninsula, the place Kim Jong Un is recurrently testing missiles and making these threats in the direction of the South Koreans and in addition to American forces within the area, we’re in a brand new age in the case of nuclear weapons. American voters are going to must resolve between two of the oldest candidates that ever ran for the US presidency. They usually’ll have to find out which of these has the psychological competency and stamina and well being to be invested with that energy. No matter who wins this election, I feel that the US sole decision-making authority in the case of nuclear weapons is out-of-date. It’s method an excessive amount of energy for one particular person to must resolve whether or not or not the world as we all know it can exist.
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