Presidential Predicaments: Eisenhower (V of VIII)--Passing the Torch?
It wouldn’t do now to have the President be the only one who could order the use of nuclear weapons—the “sole nuclear launch authority”—would it? What if he were killed in a surprise attack?
Could the President delegate this “sole nuclear launch authority” to others? President Eisenhower decided he could and would.
In 1957 he secretly “pre-delegated” the authority to order the use of nuclear weapons to some high-level military commanders, like the Admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet. He authorized these military commanders—if he could not be reached—to order the delivery of nuclear weapons on the Communists. In China and the Soviet Union both. At the same time. No matter which of them had started it.
These new “authorizing commanders” were to order the use of nuclear weapons, Eisenhower’s order said, only in cases of “grave necessity.” They shouldn’t do it, that is, just because the radios weren’t working and they couldn’t reach Washington. Which unfortunately was happening often in those days.
I’m not sure what all would have been thought to generate conditions of “grave necessity.” But if the new authorizing commanders President Eisenhower had created decided that conditions of grave necessity existed and couldn’t reach Ike, they could go ahead, his order said, and deliver the nuclear weapons they now had custody of. Many of these were megaton-range strategic hydrogen bombs and already loaded on airplanes already on runways, fueled up, ready to go.
President Eisenhower didn’t tell anyone about this “pre-delegation.” He didn’t tell us in the public, of course. He didn’t even tell our allies. As far as any of us knew, maybe even the Communists, President Eisenhower was still the only one who could order the use of nuclear weapons.
The fact that Ike had “pre-delegated” the authority to use nuclear weapons was discovered in the late 1950’s by an employee of the RAND Corporation named Daniel Ellsberg. The Office of Naval Research had sent Ellsberg, who had the highest security clearance, to the Pacific Theater to study Command and Control in our nuclear forces there. Command and Control is the system you have for controlling the use of your military resources, in this case nuclear weapons, to accomplish an assigned mission.
Ellsberg was greatly surprised by his discovery of this “pre-delegation,” and further surprised to discover that the authorizing commanders selected by Eisenhower had delegated further to commanders below them. Ellsberg found that base commanders below the new authorizing commanders and even pilots considered themselves authorized to use nuclear weapons in circumstances of what they saw as “grave necessity,” even if they weren’t entirely sure what the actual circumstances were.
Let’s say a pilot who is already in the air realizes a nuclear explosion has taken place on an American base, his or another one. The base would no longer exist. Would the pilot assume this had happened because of a Soviet attack? It might also have happened, Ellsberg pointed out, because one of the airplanes on alert there that was loaded with a thermonuclear bomb had crashed on taxi or take-off.
Did President Eisenhower know about the further pre-delegation his “authorizing commanders” had done to officers at lower levels? Ellsberg doubted it but he wasn’t exactly in a position to quiz Eisenhower about it.
He did tell his superiors at the RAND Corporation. What happened to the information after that, he never learned.
Ellsberg saw that what was behind President Eisenhower’s system of pre-delegated command and control in the Pacific theater was his fear that our thermonuclear bombs would not get delivered on the communists after a surprise attack. He seemed not to fear that the weapons could get used on them by mistake.
Was this pre-delegation supposed to function as deterrence? To let the Soviets know that we’d be able retaliate even if they did a surprise attack on Washington D.C. with one of their new ICBMs?
How could it do that if nobody knew about it? And nobody did. Not the Soviets. Not our allies. Not anyone in my family. Nobody knew, it seems, who wasn’t President Eisenhower and the commanders to whom he delegated the authority to use nuclear weapons without his authorization.
Should we believe now that our President is the only one who can order the use of nuclear weapons? Or should we expect some pre-delegation still to be in place?
We’d be naïve not to, wouldn’t we?
Might we want to know?
Next: Presidential Predicaments: Eisenhower V (of VII): Eisenhower Gets Bluffed
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What Ellsberg found about this and many other matters dealing with our nuclear war planning is reported in his superb book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (2017).
After the Soviets got Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, it might not do to have the President be the “sole nuclear launch authority,” that is, the only one who could order the use of our nuclear weapons. What if he were killed in a surprise attack?
Could the President delegate this “sole nuclear launch authority” to others? In 1957, President Eisenhower decided he could and would.
He “pre-delegated” the authority to order the use nuclear weapons to some military officers of high rank, among them the Admiral in charge of the Pacific Command.
His order said that these new “authorizing commanders” were to order the use of nuclear weapons only in cases of “grave necessity.” They shouldn’t do it, that is, just because the radios weren’t working and they couldn’t just then reach Washington. Which unfortunately was happening a lot in those days.
I’m not sure what all would have been thought to generate conditions of “grave necessity.” But if the new authorizing commanders President Eisenhower had created decided conditions of grave necessity existed and couldn’t reach Ike, they could go ahead, his order said, and deliver the nuclear weapons they now had custody of on communist targets.
Many of these weapons were the megaton-range strategic hydrogen bombs we now had and were loaded on airplanes already on runways, fueled up, ready to go.
President Eisenhower didn’t tell anyone about this “pre-delegation.” He didn’t even tell our allies. As far as any of us knew, maybe even the Communists, President Eisenhower was still the only one who could order the use of nuclear weapons.
The fact that Ike had “pre-delegated” the authority to use nuclear weapons was discovered in the late 1950’s by an ex-Marine, Harvard graduate, and now an employee of the RAND Corporation, named Daniel Ellsberg. The Office of Naval Research had sent Ellsberg, with the highest security clearance, to the Pacific theater to study Command and Control in our nuclear forces there. Command and Control is the system you have set up to control the use of your military resources, in this case nuclear weapons, to accomplish an assigned mission.
Ellsberg was greatly surprised by what he discovered, and even more surprised to discover that the authorizing commanders selected by Eisenhower had delegated further to commanders below them. Base commanders and even pilots below the authorizing commanders Eisenhower had chosen considered themselves authorized to use nuclear weapons in circumstances of what they saw as “grave necessity,” even if they weren’t entirely sure what the circumstances were.
Let’s say, for example, that a pilot who is already in the air realizes a nuclear explosion has taken place on an American base, his or another one. The base would no longer exist to explain what had happened. Would the pilot assume the nuclear explosion had happened because of a Soviet attack? Should he? It might just as well have happened, Ellsberg pointed out, because one of the airplanes on alert there that was already loaded with a thermonuclear bomb had crashed on taxi or take-off.
Did President Eisenhower know his “authorizing commanders” had done the further pre-delegation to officers at lower levels? Ellsberg doubted it, but he wasn’t exactly in a position to pop into the White House and ask Eisenhower.
Ellsberg did tell his superiors at the RAND Corporation. What happened to the information after that, he never learned.1
Ellsberg realized that what was behind President Eisenhower’s system of pre-delegated command and control in the Pacific theater was Eisenhower’s fear that our thermonuclear bombs might not get delivered on the communists after they had conducted a surprise attack on us. He seemed not to fear that the weapons could get used on them by mistake and maybe cause an attack on us.
Was this pre-delegation supposed to function as deterrence? So the Soviets would know that we’d be able retaliate even if they did a surprise attack on Washington D.C. with one of their new ICBMs?
How could it do that if nobody knew about it? And nobody did. Not the Soviets. Not our allies. Not anyone in my family. Nobody knew, it seems, who wasn’t President Eisenhower and the commanders to whom he delegated the authority to use nuclear weapons without his authorization.
So should we believe today that our President is the only one who can order the use of nuclear weapons? That’s what we hear said a lot, even by our top military leaders. That the President is the “sole nuclear launch authority.”
Shouldn’t we expect some pre-delegation still to be in place?
We’d be naïve not to, wouldn’t we?
So who, besides the President, if the President is still alive, can authorize the use of our nuclear weapons?
Might we want to know?
Next: Presidential Predicaments: Eisenhower: Eisenhower Gets Bluffed
What Ellsberg found about this and many other matters dealing with our nuclear war planning is reported in his superb book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (2017).