{{short description|Communication system between Russia and the US}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Multiple image | direction = horizontal | total_width = 400 | image2 = Moscow Kremlin (8281675670).jpg | image1 = The Pentagon, cropped square.png | footer = The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. (left) and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia (right), the two facilities linked by the hotline. | align = | alt1 = | caption1 = | caption2 = }} The '''Moscow–Washington hotline''' (formally known in the United States as the '''Washington–Moscow Direct Communications Link''';<ref name=Stone>{{cite news|last1=Stone|first1=Webster|date=September 18, 1988|title=Moscow's Still Holding|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/18/magazine/moscow-s-still-holding.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print|newspaper=New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630042053/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/18/magazine/moscow-s-still-holding.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print|archive-date=June 30, 2015|url-status=live|access-date=October 28, 2014}}</ref> {{langx|ru|Горячая линия Вашингтон – Москва|Goryachaya liniya Vashington–Moskva}}) is a system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Union). This hotline was established in 1963 and links the Pentagon with the Kremlin (historically, with Soviet Communist Party leadership across the square from the Kremlin itself).<ref name=Stone /><ref name="Smithsonian_2013-06-19">{{cite news|first=Tom|last=Clavin|title=There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House|date=19 Jun 2013|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/There-Never-Was-Such-a-Thing-as-a-Red-Phone-in-the-White-House-212156891.html|work=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=2013-07-01}}</ref> Although in popular culture it is known as the "'''red telephone'''", the hotline was never a telephone line, and no red phones were used. The first implementation used Teletype equipment, and shifted to fax machines in 1986.<ref name=Graham>{{cite book|last1=Graham|first1=Thomas |last2=La Vera|first2=Damien|year=2002|chapter=The 'Hot Line' Agreements|title=Cornerstones of Security: Arms Control Treaties in the Nuclear Era|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgHgRQMYu1YC&pg=PA20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgHgRQMYu1YC|pages=20–28|isbn=978-0295801414|publisher=University of Washington Press}}</ref> Since 2008, the Moscow–Washington hotline has been a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by a secure form of email.<ref name="richardson">{{cite news|last1=Craig|first1=Bell|last2=Richardson|first2=Paul E.|title=The Hot Line {Is a Hollywood Myth}|url=https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-207553679/the-hot-line-is-a-hollywood-myth|access-date=|work=Russian Life|issue=5|volume=52|date=September–October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630060247/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-207553679/the-hot-line-is-a-hollywood-myth|archive-date=2015-06-30|via=}}{{dead link|date=July 2021}}</ref>
==Origins== ===Background=== Several people came up with the idea for a hotline, including Harvard professor Thomas Schelling, who had worked on nuclear war policy for the Defense Department previously. Schelling credited the pop fiction novel ''Red Alert'' (the basis of the film ''Dr. Strangelove'') with making governments more aware of the benefit of direct communication between the superpowers. In addition, ''Parade'' editor Jess Gorkin personally badgered 1960 presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and buttonholed the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during a U.S. visit, to adopt the idea.<ref name=Stone /> During this period Gerard C. Smith, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, proposed direct communication links between Moscow and Washington. Objections from others in the State Department, the U.S. military, and the Kremlin delayed introduction.<ref name=Stone/>
The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis made the hotline a priority. During the standoff, official diplomatic messages typically took six hours to deliver; unofficial channels, such as via television network correspondents, had to be used too as they were quicker.<ref name=Stone/> The experience of the crisis convinced both sides of the need for better communications.<ref>{{cite web |author1=U.S. State Department |title=Hot Line Agreement (1963) |url=https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/treaties/hot-line.html |publisher=Atomic Archive |access-date=August 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830092829/https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/treaties/hot-line.html |archive-date=August 30, 2022}}</ref>
During the crisis, the United States took nearly twelve hours to receive and decode Nikita Khrushchev's 3,000-word-initial settlement message – a dangerously long time. By the time Washington had drafted a reply, a tougher message from Moscow had been received, demanding that U.S. missiles be removed from Turkey.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Black Saturday: Transcript {{!}} JFK Library |url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/about-us/social-media-podcasts-and-apps/atomic-gambit/episode-4-black-saturday/transcript |access-date=2026-02-06 |website=www.jfklibrary.org |language=en}}</ref> White House advisers thought faster communications could have averted the crisis, and resolved it quickly. The two countries signed the Hot Line Agreement on June 20, 1963<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kavass |first1=Igor I. |last2=Hein |first2=W. S. |title=United States Treaty Index: 1776–1990, Consolidation |date=1991 |page=718 |publisher=W.S. Hein |isbn=978-0899417707 |edition=Volume 6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZAaAQAAMAAJ&q=%22June+20%2C+1963%22 |access-date=30 August 2022 |quote=TIAS 5362}}</ref> – the first time they formally took action to cut the risk of starting a nuclear war unintentionally.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Russian History|isbn=0-02-865693-8|editor-first=James R.|editor-last=Millar|publisher=Macmillan|year=2004}}{{page?|date=June 2023}}</ref>
Installed on August 30, 1963, it was first used in 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Six Day War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=This Day in History – August 30, 1963: Hotline established between Washington and Moscow |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hotline-established-between-washington-and-moscow |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=History.com |date=16 November 2009 |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520160045/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hotline-established-between-washington-and-moscow|archive-date=May 20, 2023}}</ref>
===Agreement=== The "hotline", as it would come to be known, was established after the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line" on June 20, 1963, in Geneva, Switzerland, by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.<ref name=Graham /> <!-- unverified assertion removed -- cite needed that the agreement was signed at the Committee --- "at the [[Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee"-->
==Political criticism== The Republican Party criticized the hotline in its 1964 national platform; it said the Kennedy administration had "sought accommodations with Communism without adequate safeguards and compensating gains for freedom. It has alienated proven allies by opening a 'hot line' first with a sworn enemy rather than with a proven friend, and in general pursued a risky path such as began at Munich a quarter of a century ago."<ref>Republican Party Platform, Section Two, "Weakness Before Communism" (adopted July 13, 1964). See http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25840</ref>
==Technology and procedure== [[File:ITT Intelex Teletype L015.jpg|thumb|ITT Intelex Teletype L015, as displayed in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.]] [[File:T63-SU12-TP NCM.jpg|thumb|An East German T63-SU12 teleprinter from the hotline, as displayed in the National Cryptologic Museum of the NSA. The black box behind the teleprinter is an ETCRRM II encryption machine.]] [[File:Hotline sign in finland.jpg|thumb|In Finland there are still several signs marking the cable's location. This one is in Forssa. The text reads "Post and telegraph department". The cable was also used for the ordinary national telephone service.]] The Moscow–Washington hotline was intended for text only; speech might be misinterpreted. Leaders wrote in their native language and messages were translated at the receiving end.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/10/spotlight/ |author=Kennedy, Bruce |year=1998| title=CNN Cold War – Spotlight: The birth of the hot line |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080923200642/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/10/spotlight/ |archive-date=23 September 2008 |access-date=18 March 2011}}</ref>
===Teletype=== The first generation of the hotline used two full-time duplex telegraph circuits. The primary circuit was routed from Washington, D.C. via London, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki to Moscow. TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable, carried messages from Washington to London. A secondary radio line for back-up and service messages linked Washington and Moscow via Tangier. This network was originally built by Harris Corporation.<ref name="Relations1990">{{cite book|author=Council on Foreign Relations|title=International Affairs Fellowship program 1967–1990 directory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KsKFAAAAIAAJ|access-date=28 June 2013|year=1990|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations Press}}</ref>
In July 1963 the United States sent four sets of teleprinters with the Latin alphabet to Moscow for the terminal there. A month later the Soviet equipment, four sets of East German teleprinters with the Cyrillic alphabet made by Siemens, arrived in Washington. The hotline started operations on August 30, 1963.<ref name="BarnhartMetcalf1999">{{cite book|author1=David K. Barnhart|author2=Allan A. Metcalf|title=America in So Many Words: Words That Have Shaped America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SYrJZLjgDmIC&pg=PA252|access-date=28 June 2013|year=1999|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0618002702|pages=252–}}</ref>
===Encryption=== A Norwegian-built device called Electronic Teleprinter Cryptographic Regenerative Repeater Mixer II (ETCRRM II) encrypted the teletype messages using a shared one-time pad.<ref name="RavenRock">{{cite book|title=Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die|first=Garrett M.|last=Graff|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2017|isbn=978-1-4767-3540-5}}{{page?|date=June 2023}}</ref> Each country delivered keying tapes used to encode its messages via its embassy abroad. An advantage of the one-time pad was that neither country had to reveal more sensitive encryption methods to the other.<ref>David Kahn, ''The Codebreakers'', pp. 715–716 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dn.no/DNtv/video/2017/12/07/1438/norges-ukjente-rolle-i-den-hete-linjen |title=Norges ukjente rolle i den «hete linjen» – DN.no |website=www.dn.no |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208070848/https://www.dn.no/DNtv/video/2017/12/07/1438/norges-ukjente-rolle-i-den-hete-linjen |archive-date=2017-12-08}} </ref>
===Satellite=== In September 1971, Moscow and Washington decided to upgrade the system. The countries also agreed for the first time when the line should be used. Specifically, they agreed to notify each other immediately in the event of an accidental, unauthorized or unexplained incident involving a nuclear weapon that could increase the risk of nuclear war.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Fpvdv4f2cUC|pages=301–302|title=Arms control|author=Jozef Goldblat (International Peace Research Institute)|publisher=Sage|isbn=0761940162|year=2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalarm00blac|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalarm00blac/page/118 118]|title=International arms control|author=Coit D. Blacker, Gloria Duffy (Stanford Arms Control Group)|isbn=0804712115|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1984}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQA9AAAAIAAJ|title=The end of the post-war era|author=James Mayall, Cornelia Navari|pages=135–137|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521226988|year=1980}}</ref> Two new satellite communication lines supplemented the terrestrial circuits using two U.S. Intelsat satellites, and two Soviet Molniya II satellites. This arrangement lasted from 1971 to 1978; it made the radio link via Tangier redundant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hot Line Modernization Agreement |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/isn/4787.htm |access-date=2026-02-06 |website=U.S. Department of State}}</ref>
===Facsimile=== In May 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed to upgrade the hotline by the addition of high-speed facsimile capability. The Soviet Union and the United States agreed formally to do this on July 17, 1984.
According to the agreement, upgrades were to take place through use of Intelsat satellites and modems, facsimile machines, and computers.<ref name=Larsen>{{cite book|last1=Larsen|first1=Jeffrey Arthur|last2=Smith|first2=James M.|year=2005|title=Historical Dictionary of Arms Control and Disarmament|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000lar|url-access=registration|quote=moscow hotline teleprinter fax machine.|publisher=Scarecrow Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000lars/page/107 107]|isbn=978-0810850606}}</ref> <!-- unverified assertion -- cite needed -- facsimile terminals were to be installed at each end of the hotline in 1985. --> The facsimile terminals were operational by 1986.<ref name=Graham /> The teletype circuits were cut in 1988 after several years of testing and use proved the fax links to be reliable. The Soviets transferred the hotline link to the newer, geostationary Gorizont-class satellites of the Stationar system.<ref>Stephen L. Thacher, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130408133745/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA222248 ''Crisis Communications between Superpowers''], US Army War College, Carusle Barracks, 1990, p. 10.</ref>
In 1988, the US side of the hotline system was located at the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon. Each MOLINK (Moscow Link) team worked an eight-hour shift: a non-commissioned officer looked after the equipment, and a commissioned officer who was fluent in Russian and well-briefed on world affairs was translator.<ref name="Stone" /> The hotline was tested hourly. U.S. test messages included excerpts of William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, encyclopedias, and a first-aid manual; Soviet tests included passages from the works of Anton Chekhov. MOLINK staffers took special care not to include innuendo or literary imagery that could be misinterpreted, such as passages from ''Winnie the Pooh'', given that a bear is considered the national symbol of Russia. The Soviets also asked, during the Carter administration, that Washington not send routine communications through the hotline.<ref name="Stone" />
Upon receipt of the message at the NMCC, the message was translated into English, and both the original Russian and the translated English texts were transmitted to the White House Situation Room. However, if the message were to indicate "an imminent disaster, such as an accidental nuclear strike", the MOLINK team would telephone the gist of the message to the Situation Room duty officer who would brief the president before a formal translation was complete.<ref name="Stone" />
===Email=== In 2007, the Moscow–Washington hotline was upgraded; a dedicated computer network links Moscow and Washington. The new system started operations on January 1, 2008.<ref name="richardson" /> It continues to use the two satellite links but a fiber optic cable replaced the old back-up cable. Commercial software is used for both chat and email: chat to coordinate operations, and email for actual messages. Transmission is nearly instantaneous.
==Usage== The first message transmitted over the hotline was on August 30, 1963. Washington sent Moscow the text: "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG'S BACK 1234567890" (a pangram to test printing of each character in the alphabet). The message was sent in all capital letters, since the equipment did not support lowercase.<ref name="crypt">{{cite web|url=http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/hotline/index.htm|title=Washington Moscow Hotline|website=www.cryptomuseum.com|access-date=2016-02-28}}</ref> Later, a Soviet diplomat asked the US Secretary of State, "What does it mean when your people say 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'?"<ref>{{cite book |last=Rusk |first=Dean |title=As I Saw It: A Secretary of State's Memoirs |publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. |year=1991 |location=London |page=225|quote=Andrei Gromyko once asked me, ‘What does it mean when your people say, “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’?”}}</ref>
The primary link was accidentally cut several times, for example near Copenhagen by a Danish bulldozer operator, and by a Finnish farmer who ploughed it up once. Regular testing of both the primary and backup links took place daily. During the even hours, the US sent test messages to the Soviet Union. In the odd hours, the Soviet Union sent test messages to the US.<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://electrospaces.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-washington-moscow-hot-line.html| title = Electrospaces.net: The Washington-Moscow Hotline | website = electrospaces.blogspot.co.uk| access-date = 2025-08-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dobrynin |first1=Anatolij F. |title=In confidence: Moscow's ambassador to America's six Cold War presidents (1962 - 1986) |last2=Dobrynin |first2=Anatolij F. |publisher=Times Books, Random House |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8129-2894-5 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=102}}</ref>
The line was used during:<ref name="crypt" />
* 1963: Assassination of President Kennedy * 1967: Six Day War * 1968: Apollo 8 mission progress * 1971: War between India and Pakistan * 1973: Yom Kippur War * 1974: Turkish Invasion of Cyprus * 1979: Soviet–Afghan War * 1981: Threat of Soviet Invasion of Poland * 1982: Israeli Invasion of Lebanon * 1991: Gulf War * 2001: The 9/11 attacks * 2003: Aftermath of Iraq War On October 31, 2016, the Moscow–Washington hotline was used to reinforce Barack Obama's September warning that the U.S. would consider any interference on Election Day a grave matter.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-obama-said-putin-red-phone-about-election-hack-n697116|title=What Obama said to Putin on the Red Phone about the election hacks|newspaper=NBC News|access-date=2016-12-20}}</ref>
==Other hotlines with Moscow== ===US-Russia hotlines and hotline-type agreements===
* NRRCs: Another hotline-type mechanism for formal communications between Washington and Moscow are the US Nuclear Risk Reduction Center and Russian National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, which were initiated by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 following the Reykjavik Summit to reduce the risk of nuclear war.<ref name=treaty>{{cite news|title=Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers (1987)|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/isn/215573.htm|work=US State Department|date=15 September 1987}}</ref> The negotiations began in May 1986, and the sides agreed in 1987.<ref name=nuke.fas.org>{{cite news|title=Agreement on the Establishment of Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers (1987)|url=https://nuke.fas.org/control/nrrc/docs/nrrc1.htm|work=FAS|date=15 September 1987}}</ref> The sides established NRRCs in Washington and in Moscow,<ref name=Homepage>{{cite news|title=Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for Monitoring the Implementation of Treaties (National Center for Nuclear Risk Reduction)|url=https://structure.mil.ru/structure/ministry_of_defence/details.htm?id=11148@egOrganization|work=Russia MOD|date=5 June 2024}}</ref> exchanging arms control and confidence building measures notifications, initially including those required by the agreement on Measures to Reduce the Risk of Outbreak of Nuclear War and the 1972 Agreement on the Prevention of Incidents on and over the High Seas, with their duties expanding over the decades to include notifications covering more than 16 treaties and agreements. * Cyber hotline: In 2012, it was announced that a proposal was being negotiated with Moscow to add cyber warfare to the topics to be discussed on the hotline.<ref name=telecomnews>{{cite news|title=US, Russia plan hotline to prevent cyber war|url=http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=473127|access-date=5 September 2012|newspaper=Total Telecom|date=30 April 2012}}</ref> * Syrian Civil War deconfliction hotline: The US and Russia set up a hotline during the Syrian Civil War in September 2015<ref name=CBS_News>{{cite news|title=U.S., Russia to work together for "deconfliction" in Syria |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-ash-carter-talks-russia-syria-war-assad-obama-policy-shifts/|access-date=24 March 2026|website=CBSNews.com|date=11 September 2015}}</ref> between US personnel in Qatar and Russian personnel in Syria to prevent unintended escalation and conflict. * Ukraine War deconfliction hotline: At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States and Russia created a deconfliction line to prevent miscalculations or escalation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mitchell |first1=Ellen |title=US, Russia set up military communication line to prevent accidental clash |url=https://thehill.com/policy/defense/596789-us-russia-set-up-military-communication-line-to-prevent-accidental-clash/ |website=thehill.com |date=3 March 2022 |access-date=December 1, 2022}}</ref> In November 2022, an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters that the line had only been used once in the war. The official said that the line was used to communicate concerns about Russian military operations near Ukrainian infrastructure, but did not elaborate. The official said it was not used when a Ukrainian missile hit Poland.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stewart |first1=Phil |title=Exclusive: U.S., Russia have used their military hotline once so far during Ukraine war |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us-russia-have-used-deconfliction-line-once-so-far-during-ukraine-war-source-2022-11-28/ |website=reuters.com |date=29 November 2022 |access-date=December 1, 2022}}</ref>
===Russian hotlines with other countries=== * France: the USSR and France set up a hotline in 1966.<ref name=LeMonde>{{cite news|title=Une ligne de communication directe sera établie entre le Kremlin et l'Élysée|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1966/07/02/une-ligne-de-communication-directe-sera-etablie-entre-le-kremlin-et-l-elysee_2690570_1819218.html |website=LeMonde.fr |date=2 July 1966|access-date=March 24, 2026}}</ref> * United Kingdom: the USSR and UK set up a hotline in 1967. * India: Russia and India set up their head of state-level hotline in 1995. * China: China first announced the intention to establish a hotline with Russia in 1996,<ref name=UN>{{cite news|title=Joint Declaration by the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation|url=https://docs.un.org/en/A/51/127 |website=docs.un.org|date=25 April 1996|access-date=March 24, 2026}}</ref> and again in 1998 <ref name=UnitedNations>{{cite news|title=Direct telephone line between Chinese and Russian heads of state launched|url=https://www.gmw.cn/01wzb/1998-05/10/GB/1542%5EWZ2-1007.htm |website=wenzhaibo|date=10 May 1998|access-date=March 24, 2026}}</ref>, with a signed agreement in 2000<ref name=RussianForeignMinistry>{{cite news| title=Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the establishment of a direct classified telephone line between the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China |url=https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/international_contracts/international_contracts/2_contract/46811/ |website=mid.ru |date=3 November 2000 |access-date=March 24, 2026}}</ref>. They established an MOD-MOD hotline in 2008.<ref>{{cite web |title=China, Russia open direct military hotline |url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/14/content_6538323.htm |website=chinadaily.com |date=March 14, 2008}}</ref>
* NATO: Russia and NATO have had a hotline between the Secretary General and President since 1997, and between SACEUR and the MOD Minister since 2003.
==In popular culture== [[File:Jimmy Carter Library and Museum 99.JPG|thumb|A non-dial "Red Phone" which is on display in the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. This telephone is actually a prop, erroneously representing the hotline between Washington and Moscow.<ref>[http://electrospaces.blogspot.nl/2013/08/the-red-phone-that-was-not-on-hotline.html The red phone that was NOT on the Hotline], August 30, 2013</ref>]]
In numerous books, movies, video games, etc., the hotline between Washington and Moscow is represented by a red phone, although the real hotline has never been a telephone line.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duling |first=Kaitlyn |page=78 |title=Nuclear Proliferation, the Military-Industrial Complex, and the Arms Race |date=2017-07-15 |publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC |isbn=978-1-5026-2730-8 |language=en}}</ref>
A hotline telephone was depicted in the film ''Fail-Safe'' as the "Red 1 / Ultimate 1 Touch phone", and also in Stanley Kubrick's film ''Dr. Strangelove'', both from 1964 and both loosely based on Peter George's Cold War thriller novel ''Red Alert'' from 1958.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dodge |first=Robert |chapter=Dr Strangelove and the Hotline |title=The Strategist: The Life and Times of Thomas Schelling : how a Game Theorist Understood the Cold War and Won the Nobel Prize in Economics |date=2006 |publisher=Hollis Publishing |isbn=978-1-884186-37-0 |language=en}}</ref>
A more realistic depiction of the Hotline was Tom Clancy's novel ''The Sum of All Fears'' from 1991 and its 2002 film adaptation, in which a text-based computer communications system was depicted, resembling the actual Hotline equipment from the 1980s and 1990s. In the novel the isolated and unprepared President and National Security Advisor consistently misinterpret the Russian messages, prompting the Vice President aboard the National Emergency Airborne Command Post to remark "These damned messages over the Hot Line are making things worse instead of better".<ref>{{cite book |last=Nanz |first=Tobias |chapter=Das diplomatische Protokoll |date=2023 |title=Das Protokoll |pages=15–30 |editor-last=Plener |editor-first=Peter |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66896-2_2 |access-date=2026-02-06 |place=Berlin, Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |language=de |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-66896-2_2 |isbn=978-3-662-66896-2 |editor2-last=Werber |editor2-first=Niels |editor3-last=Wolf |editor3-first=Burkhardt|doi-access=free }}</ref> The protagonist Jack Ryan then communicates information over the Hotline from the Pentagon's NMCC to both country's leaders that defuses the crisis.
[[File:SAC Museum Red Phone 2020 (cropped).jpg|thumb|This "Red Phone" was installed in the CINCSAC underground command post at Offutt AFB. Although connected to a hotline for nuclear warfare command communications, it was a component of the SAC Primary Alert System. It did not connect to foreign officials.]]
In the 1990 HBO film ''By Dawn's Early Light'', the White House Situation Room equipment that receives the (translated) hotline message, apparently relayed by the Pentagon-NMCC MOLINK team, is depicted as a teleprinter<ref name=Lisboa>{{cite book|last1=Lisboa|first1=Maria Manuel|year=2011|title=The End of the World: Apocalypse and Its Aftermath in Western Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=03mzgiknmtAC&q=by+dawn%27s+early+light+teletype&pg=PA28|publisher=Open Book Publishers|page=28|isbn=9781906924508|quote=...the Americans receive a teletype from their counterparts in the Soviet Union stating that they have now determined that the first missile was not launched by NATO.}}</ref> (and not as a fax machine, the technology already in use at the NMCC itself by that year<ref name=Graham />).
A telephone is used in the intro cinematic of the video game ''Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2''. The call is placed by the US president to the Kremlin in the wake of a global Soviet invasion.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnd0qg4I_MM|title=Red Alert 2 intro|date=July 3, 2006|via=YouTube}}</ref>
===Political advertising=== The "red phone" was the centerpiece of television commercials used in the 1984 Democratic primary and 1984 presidential election and the 2008 Democratic primary elections. In 1984, an advertisement made by Bob Beckel and Roy Spence on behalf of candidate Walter Mondale suggested that "The most awesome, powerful responsibility in the world lies in the hand that picks up this phone." The advertisement was intended to raise questions about candidate Gary Hart's readiness for the presidency.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fu-2Ew1ijg|title=US Democrats - Walter Mondale 1984 Video 10|date=March 11, 2007|via=YouTube}}</ref><ref name="wapo 080301 kurtz">{{Citation|last=Kurtz|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Kurtz|title=Clinton Plays the Fear Card|newspaper=Washington Post|pages=A08|date=March 1, 2008|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022903334.html }}</ref>
The red phone was also featured prominently in an advertisement from that year targeting President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. In the second ad, the ringing phone goes unanswered while the narrator says, "there will be no time to wake a president – computers will take control."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmtxXJnzoc|title=Mondale/Ferraro Commercial 1984|date=August 30, 2007|via=YouTube}}</ref><ref name="kaid">{{cite book|last=Kaid|first=Lynda Lee|author2=Anne Johnston|title=Videostyle in Presidential Campaigns: Style and Content of Televised Political Advertising|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2000|isbn=0-275-94071-3|page=59}}</ref><ref name="rcp 080319">{{cite web|last=Beckel|first=Bob|author-link=Bob Beckel|title=Superdelegates: Whiners or Deciders?|publisher=Real Clear Politics|date=March 19, 2008|url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/superdelegates_whiners_or_deci.html|access-date=2008-03-20}}</ref> Roy Spence revived the "red phone" idea in 2008 in an advertisement for candidate Hillary Clinton.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yr7odFUARg|title=Hillary Clinton Ad - 3 AM White House Ringing Phone|date=May 15, 2008|via=YouTube}}</ref><ref name="wapo 080301 kornblut">{{Citation|last1=Kornblut|first1=Anne E.|author-link=Anne E. Kornblut|last2=Murray|first2=Shailagh|author2-link=Shailagh Murray|title=Clinton Ad Hints Obama Is Unprepared for Crisis|newspaper=Washington Post|pages=A01|date=March 1, 2008|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022904073.html}}</ref>
==See also== * Islamabad–New Delhi hotline * Seoul–Pyongyang hotline * Beijing–Washington hotline
==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * "[https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologs/assets/files/cryptolog_85.pdf DCL: The Direct Communications Link]", ''Cryptolog'', December 1983, declassified internal newsletter of the National Security Agency; five-page illustrated article detailing the political and technical history of the hotline up to the Reagan administration. * [http://electrospaces.blogspot.nl/2012/10/the-washington-moscow-hot-line.html Top Level Telecommunications: The Washington-Moscow Hot Line] * [http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/hotline.html Crypto Machines: The Washington-Moscow Hot Line] * [https://fas.org/nuke/control/hotline/text/index.html The original Hotline Agreement Texts of 1963, 1971 and 1984]
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