Everyone is stunned after learning the nuclear launch code that America used during the Cuban Missile Crisis and part of the Cold War.
From 1962 to 1977, the passcode intended to keep trigger-happy members of the Air Force from launching a nuclear attack was perhaps too easy to guess: 00000000.
Although officials have long denied their widespread use of this highly insecure and disturbingly simple passcode — including a report to Congress — an unclassified manual for the nuclear-capable Minuteman has confirmed the claim.
The manual, unearthed by Princeton scientist and former Minuteman launch officer Dr. Bruce Blair, helped end a decade of debate between veteran missile launch officers and the Air Force itself in the 21st century.
“As the manual says, ‘under normal circumstances the CODE INSERT miniature switches will be set to 00000000,'” Dr. Blair wrote for Princeton’s Science & Global Security site.
‘[And] as I and thousands of other senior members of the launch crew can testify,” he added, “they also remained at 00000000 during the (abnormal) firing process.”
To this day, many online are still stunned by the revelation, calling the “absurd mistake” a “fun fact that will keep you awake at night.”
“It’s amazing how stupid and lax the nuclear weapons controls were,” one user commented on the historic episode.
But the story of how this shockingly simple code came to be implemented is a tale of real Cold War paranoia: turf war and political disagreements between then-President John F. Kennedy and his own Air Force generals.
From 1962 to 1977, the passcode intended to prevent trigger-happy members of the Air Force from launching a nuclear attack was too easy to guess: 00000000. Historians say the shocking passcode was a rogue plan by the Air Force. Above, a Minuteman II missile test in 1965
The telltale technical manual also included a grainy image of the ‘launch enable panel’ (left) instructing USAF personnel to enter the eight-digit code. “It shows eight ‘code insert thumbwheel switches’, all set to zeros,” Dr. noted. Blair on (right, the corrected later panel)
President Kennedy issued an executive order in June 1962 demanding the installation of the so-called “Permissive Action Links” [PALs]’, a lockbox intended to prevent the rogue use of nuclear weapons by fanatical anti-communist air force personnel.
In fact, the creator of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, General Curtis LeMay, urged JFK to preemptively use U.S. nuclear weapons to bomb the Soviets “back to the Stone Age.”
But while JFK had entrusted his more level-headed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to set up the protective PALs over these missiles, LeMay’s generals at US Strategic Command “almost immediately” had the PAL codes all reset to 00000000.
“This McNamara vignette will be part of a long litany of items pointing out the ignorance of presidents, defense secretaries and other nuclear security officials about the true state of nuclear energy during their time in office,” said Dr .Blair.
‘What I then told McNamara about his vital locks provoked the following response: ‘I am shocked, absolutely shocked and outraged.’ the Air Force veteran noted as he broke the story first in 2004. ”Who the hell authorized that?”
Strategic Air Command, explained Dr. Blair, ‘remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential for these safeguards to disrupt the implementation of wartime launch orders.’
As he recalled from his own tour as a Minuteman launch officer between 1970 and 1974, the easy-to-remember combination was even written down usefully for officers.
“Our launch checklist instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no non-zero numbers had been accidentally entered into the panel,” Dr. Blair wrote.
While JFK had entrusted his more level-headed Secretary of Defense to set up the protective PALs over these missiles, LeMay’s generals “almost immediately” had the PAL codes reset to 00000000. Above is a USAF file photo of an officer handling the nuclear ” launch enable’ used panel’
To this day, many online are still baffled by the revelation, calling the ‘absurd mistake’ a ‘fun fact that will keep you awake at night’ (above)
“This absurd surveillance highlights the tension between safety and preparedness, even with the most destructive technology on earth,” opined one person on social media (above)
Dissatisfied with the attention attracted by Dr. Blair, the Air Force issued a report to Congress, obtained by magazine Foreign Policy in 2014, carefully denying the nuclear security expert, academic and Air Force veteran’s claim.
‘A code consisting of eight zeros has never been used to enable an MM ICBM [Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles] as claimed by Dr. Bruce Blair,” they said.
But within a year, Dr. Blair gained access to an official Air Force document, “Weapon System Operation Instructions, Technical Manual TO 21M-LGM30F-1-2, June 21, 1969, Change 34, June 13, 1973,” which stated that confirmed the use of the eight-zero code.
The technical manual also included a grainy image of the launch enable panel in which USAF personnel were instructed to enter the eight-digit code.
‘The starting panel, sends a special code to the program control panel,” Dr. Blair noted. “There are eight ‘code insertion thumbwheel switches’, all set to zeros.”
“The Air Force misled Congress,” the nuclear expert argued. ‘It regularly avoids the truth and gets away with it, hiding behind a thick wall of secrecy.’