In action movies, all it takes is the President of the United States pushing a big red button or making a phone call to trigger a nuclear bomb. In reality, the process is much more complicated and begins… with a suitcase called the “nuclear football“, which (almost) never leaves the commander in chief.
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Since the late 1950s, after the nuclear arms race began, the president has been closely followed at all times by a military adviser who carries the presidential emergency bag. It is nicknamed the “nuclear football» (nuclear soccer ball).
The suitcase, which weighs a whopping 45 pounds (20 kilograms), has an aluminum frame and is covered in black leather. It represents the “pinnacle of presidential control over the use of nuclear weapons,” according to an analysis by George Washington University.
President George W. Bush, accompanied by his aides and a military advisor carrying the “nuclear football,” at the G8 summit in 2002.
Photo by Eric Draper, George W. Bush Presidential Library
The idea is that the president would be able to react quickly in the event of a surprise military attack.
Its origins, however, remain highly classified. Even though formerly top-secret documents were made public in 2023, there remains some uncertainty surrounding the famous suitcase.
Why is it called that?
According to former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, the nickname “nuclear football” refers to an old war plan called “Operation Dropkick.” A dropkick is a type of soccer kick that requires a ball to complete.
What’s in the nuclear football?
The suitcase does not contain a big red button that can trigger a nuclear weapon. Instead, there are a host of documents, including nuclear war plans, plus the protocol for confirming the president’s identity and putting him in touch with the National Military Command Center, a bunker beneath the Pentagon.
The suitcase also includes a “black book,” a sort of menu of the different nuclear weapons the president can choose to launch and the targets to strike, depending on which states are considered “enemies” of the United States.
“It’s like choosing one dish from column A and two from column B,” Robert Patterson, a former military adviser to President Bill Clinton, once illustrated the simplicity with which a single person could wipe out all of humanity.
It was in 1963, during the presidency of John F. Kennedy, that the first photo of the nuclear football was made public.
President John F. Kennedy with a military advisor carrying the “nuclear football.”
Photo Abbie Rowe, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
The Vice President may also have his own backup nuclear football (called the “back up football“), in the event that the President is unable to give the order to launch the nuclear weapon due to serious illness or death.
Dramas narrowly avoided
Over the past sixty years, the nuclear football has come close to falling into the wrong hands on several occasions.
The most recent incident was the insurrection at the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. Protesters managed to get within about 30 meters of Vice President Mike Pence and his “backup football.”
An investigation into the incident, however, confirmed that if the protesters had seized it, they would not have been able to use a nuclear weapon, since only the president has the power to do so.
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It has also happened that a president has misplaced the codes allowing him to authenticate himself. This is the case of Bill Clinton, who lost his laminated card nicknamed “biscuit” for a few months.
In 1981, during the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, the president was separated from the military adviser carrying the nuclear football when he was taken to hospital.
He also lost his “biscuit” when medical staff removed his clothes to operate on him. The card was placed in a bag used by hospitals to store a patient’s belongings.
— With reporting from the Associated Press, Smithsonian Magazine, Bloomberg and Time
