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When most people picture the Washington–Moscow Hotline, they imagine a bright red phone sitting on the president’s desk, waiting to ring with the fate of the world on the line. Hollywood planted that image in our minds, but the reality was far less dramatic and far more important. The Hotline was not a telephone at all. It was a teletype circuit that clattered out carefully worded messages, later upgraded to fax machines, and today exists as a secure e-mail system. Born out of the near disaster of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was designed to prevent misunderstandings that could trigger nuclear war. In this episode of Dave Does History, we are going to trace the real story of the Hotline, from its first test message about a quick brown fox to its use during crises in the Middle East, the Gulf War, and even modern warnings about election interference.
When most people picture the Washington–Moscow Hotline, they imagine a bright red phone sitting on the president’s desk, waiting to ring with the fate of the world on the line. Hollywood planted that image in our minds, but the reality was far less dramatic and far more important. The Hotline was not a telephone at all. It was a teletype circuit that clattered out carefully worded messages, later upgraded to fax machines, and today exists as a secure e-mail system. Born out of the near disaster of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was designed to prevent misunderstandings that could trigger nuclear war. In this episode of Dave Does History, we are going to trace the real story of the Hotline, from its first test message about a quick brown fox to its use during crises in the Middle East, the Gulf War, and even modern warnings about election interference.