File talk:Jimmy Carter Library and Museum 99.JPG

Origin[edit]

What's the origin of this picture? We know that red phones were not used for the "nuclear hotline" so where does it come from? 208.65.73.105 (talk) 17:16, 6 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This red phone was most likely used as part of the Defense Red Switch Network, linking the president, the secretary of defense and all the mayor command centers. So not for international, but for internal use, that is the chain of command for the US defense system. P2Peter (talk) 01:01, 19 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Transcription[edit]

For those who care, or for those who are unable to read the caption sign, I've managed to more-or-less accurately transcribe the words on it. It reads as follows:
"RED PHONE
During Jimmy Carter's presidency, the "red
phone" was a hotline to the Kremlin in Moscow.
A U.S. president could pick up the phone and
speak directly to Soviet leaders in times of crisis."
The bottom-most line is indecipherable to me, as it is too small and distorted. Without visiting this museum myself or finding a better quality photo, I cannot even guess what the word is.
-Mattokunhayashi (talk) 07:21, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for transcribing the text! However, the description of this phone as being part of a telephone hotline with Moscow, is contrary to a range of sources stating that the hotline was not a phone line, and no red phones were attached to it. The Hotline was teletype, later fax and nowadays e-mail (see also this text about the red phone). Greetings, P2Peter (talk) 22:13, 14 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]