"QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER LAZY DOG'S BACK"

HOTLINE BETWEEN PENTAGON & KREMLIN ACTIVATED

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On August 30, 1963, the telephone "hot line" between the Pentagon and the Kremlin was activated for the first time.  It was made possible by an agreement between the two nations negotiated in June 1963.  

The first test message sent over the teletype wires was...

"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890" 

JFK+50 NOTE 

The need for a "hot line" became clear during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 when the world came dangerously close to nuclear war. 

 The hotline system included four teletype machines located in the Kremlin and four teletype machines located at the Pentagon.  LBJ was the 1st POTUS to actually use the Hotline in 1967.

SOURCES

"Hotline Is Hot," JFK+50, August 30, 2011, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/ 

"Hotline Connects Pentagon With Kremlin," JFK+50, August 30, 2013, www.jfk50.blogspot.com/

Kennedy Hotline Telephone

RED ALERT: HOTLINE NEVER WAS A TELEPHONE

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2054

HOTLINE NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back." No, that's not the sentence JFK practiced typing in the Oval Office, but it is the first test message sent over the HOTLINE from the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia to the Kremlin in Moscow.  That message was transmitted fifty-three years ago today, August 30, 1963.

In June 1963, the hot line agreement had been signed by representatives of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  The agreement came in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 when the world came close to nuclear war.   The White House issued a statement saying the hotline would "help reduce the risk of war occurring by accident or miscalculation."  The sentence transmitted included the numbers 1234567890.

The idea for the hotline came from Harvard professor Thomas Schelling who credited the novel Red Alert* with making governments more aware of direct communication in the nuclear age.  The hotline was advocated by Jess Gorkin, editor of Parade Magazine and Gerald C. Smith of the US State Department.

Ironically, the Republican Party platform of 1964 was highly critical of the hotline.  One of the planks states that the Kennedy administration...

"has alienated proven allies by opening a 'hotline' first with a sworn enemy rather than with a proven friend," and compared the concept to appeasement at Munich.

Bryan Bender, writing for Politico.com, tells us that the hotline "was never a telephone line and no red phones were used."  It was originally a teletype device, but in 1986 became a secure fax machine.  Then in 2008, the hotline became a secure computer link in which communication was done by email.

Mr. Bender says that the hotline is still tested but "seldom used."  In fact, after the Russians invaded the Crimea there has been little communication of any kind between the United States and Russia.

*Red Alert, a novel written by Peter George in 1958, was originally published in the UK as "Two Hours to Doom."  It became the inspiration for the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove.

SOURCE

"The hotline to Moscow goes cold," by Bryan Bender, October 2, 2015, www.politico.com/

T63-SU12-TPNCM

National Security Administration

Photo by Austin Mills (2005)

Rotatebot (talk/contribs)

www.wikipedia.org/

CASEY STENGEL RETIRES

NEW YORK'S CASEY STENGEL RETIRED 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

New York City (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, August 30, 1965, long-time major league baseball player and manager Casey Stengel* announced his retirement ending a 56 year career.  Casey was manager of the New York Mets at the time.

Stengel first became manager of the New York Yankees replacing Joe McCarthy in 1949.  Casey inherited the likes of Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto and Mickey Mantle.  Stengel managed the first team in baseball history to win five consecutive World Series championships (1949-1953).

Casey went on to post a record of 1149 wins and 696 losses over 12 seasons while winning 10 American League pennants and 7 World Series. Casey Stengel was admitted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

Stengel was fired as manager of the Yankees at the age of 70 because they thought he was too old to manage.   In his classic style, Casey said: "I'll never make the mistake of being 70 again."

In 1960 at the Al Smith Dinner in New York, Senator John F. Kennedy said...

 "The worst news for the Republicans this week was that Casey Stengel had been fired.  It just shows past experience doesn't count." 

Vice-President Richard Nixon had been saying in the 1960 presidential campaign that JFK lacked the experience necessary to be President.

*Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (1890-1975) was born in Kansas City, MO.  His baseball career began in Brooklyn in 1913 and he played for several different teams including the NY Giants.

According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, "Stengel's colorful personality &...quotable remarks made him one of baseball's most beloved characters."

SOURCE

"Charles Dillon Stengel," National Baseball Hall of Fame, www.baseballhall.org/

Casey Stengel

New York Yankees Manager (1953)

HOT LINE ACTIVATED 52 YEARS AGO 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) The telephone "hot line" between the Pentagon and the Kremlin was activated for the first time fifty-two years ago, August 30, 1963.  Earlier in June, the hot line agreement was signed by representatives of the United States and USSR.

The agreement came in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 when the world came close to nuclear war.  The White House issued a statement saying the hotline would "help reduce the risk of war occurring by accident or miscalculation."

The first test message sent over the wires from Washington was...

"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890."

Kennedy Hotline

FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN IN SPACE

FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN IN SPACE 31 YEARS AGO TODAY

Cape Canaveral, Florida (JFK+50) Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford of the United States Air Force became the 1st African-American to be launched into outer space thirty-one years ago today, August 30, 1983.

Lt. Col Bluford, a mission specialist, was launched with his fellow astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2:32 a.m.

Bluford earned a PhD in the philosophy of Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Air Force Institute of Technology.

              Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford
                          NASA Photo

HOT LINE CONNECTS PENTAGON WITH KREMLIN

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) A hot line between the Pentagon and the Kremlin was activated fifty=one years ago today, August 30, 1963, making John F. Kennedy the 1st POTUS to have access to the new technology.

Earlier in June, the hot line agreement had been signed by representatives of the United States and the Soviet Union.

The White House issued a statement saying the hotline would...

 "help reduce the risk of war occurring by accident or miscalculation."

The first test message sent over the wires from Washington was: 

"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890."

Kennedy Hotline

The New York Times reported that the hot line was...

"a direct outgrowth of the serious delays that developed in diplomatic communications between the 2 capitals during the Cuban Missile Crisis."

The hot line had the capability of reducing the time to initiate direct communication between the President of the United States and the Premier of the Soviet Union from hours to minutes.

Despite the improvement, however, the process was not exactly what has been depicted in Hollywood.  

If JFK wanted to place a call on the hotline, he first had to call the Pentagon and have operators there type in his message on the teletype machine* that was part of the system.

The President's message would then be encrypted, fed to a transmitter and sent to the Kremlin. Premier Khrushchev would then receive the message and a reply would be sent following a similar procedure back to the Pentagon.

While JFK was the first president to have access to the hot line, it was actually LBJ who became the first president to use it in 1967 when he was considering sending Air Force jets to the Middle East.

SOURCE

"August 30, 1963/Communications 'Hot Line' Connects Soviet and U.S. Heads of State,"  The Learning Network, www.learning.blogs.nytimes.com/