[GreenKeys] Twitter to Replace Washington-Kremlin Hotline

Thu Jun 24 16:21:07 EDT 2010

What a great idea......until some hacker has a bad day and the nukes start
flying. Some people shouldn't even be allowed near 2 tin cans and a piece
of string let alone "tweet" :)>

Ron
K0IDT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Cichorsky" <steve at telephonepioneer.net>
To: "GreenKeys 4Post" <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 3:00 PM
Subject: [GreenKeys] Twitter to Replace Washington-Kremlin Hotline

> 
> 
> 
> " Obama said that both he and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev use
> > the popular social networking program Twittter. Obama said "we may be able 
> > to finally throw away those red phones" that were designed to allow 
> > immediate contact between the Kremlin and the White House during the cold 
> > war."
> 
>  This 1963 article describes the Bell System/WECo/Teletype equipment that 
> was
>  used to implement the original "Hot Line." IIRC, ITT provided the
>  international circuits.
> 
>  Steve C.
> 
> > 'Hot Line' Opened by U.S. and Soviet to Cut Attack Risk
> >
> > Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES
> >
> > Washington, Aug. 30 -- A diplomatic "hot line" between Moscow and 
> > Washington went into operation today with the simultaneous clattering of 
> > telecommunication machines in the Kremlin and the Pentagon.
> > The emergency communications channel is designed to reduce the risk of 
> > accidental war. The opening was announced in a one-sentence Defense 
> > Department statement:
> > "The direct communications link between Washington and Moscow is now 
> > operational."
> >
> > No ceremony accompanied the implementations of one of the few arms control 
> > measures that the United States and the Soviet Union, the two major 
> > nuclear powers, have been able to agree upon in years of negotiations.
> >
> > Text Message Is Sent
> >
> > There was no exchange of official messages. Instead, from Washington went 
> > the message used by Teletype operators to test whether a circuit is 
> > operating -- "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 
> > 1234567890,"
> > Back from Moscow came a similar test message in Russian, which was 
> > completely unintelligible to the United States operators but at least 
> > showed that all the characters on the Teletype were working correctly.
> > After a series of exchanges of such messages, the Pentagon said, it was 
> > determined that the link was "completely satisfactory" and it was 
> > "declared operational and made available for exchange of official messages 
> > between the two Governments."
> >
> > Now that the link has been established, it will be used only "in time of 
> > emergency" and then only for exchange of messages between the two heads of 
> > Government.
> > The decision to establish the "hot line" is a direct outgrowth of the 
> > serious delays that developed in diplomatic communications between the two 
> > capitals during the Cuban crisis last fall. Diplomatic messages are now 
> > sent over normal commercial channels to the United States and Soviet 
> > Embassies in Moscow and Washington.
> >
> > With the time consumed by transmission, coding and decoding, translation 
> > and delivery, hours are often required before a message reaches its 
> > destination.
> > The direct link, which is available 24 hours a day, will make it possible 
> > for the heads of the two Governments to exchange messages in minutes.
> >
> > A message from President Kennedy to Premier Khrushchev, for example, will 
> > be sent to the Washington terminal of the link in the National Military 
> > Command Center in the Pentagon. There American Teletype operators will 
> > type the message on a teleprinter and a punched tape.
> >
> > After checking the typed message against the original copy, the Teletype 
> > tape will be fed into a Teletype transmitter. As the message goes out, it 
> > will be encoded by a "scrambling device" to prevent anyone from reading it 
> > at relay points along the 10,000-mile cable circuit.
> >
> > In Moscow, the message will go through a decoding device and appear on a 
> > Teletype machine in the Kremlin near the office of Premier Khrushchev.
> >
> > Translation Necessary
> >
> > The plan calls for the United States to transmit messages in English and 
> > the Soviet Union in Russian. Thus at each end it will be necessary for the 
> > messages to be translated before they can be delivered to the leaders.
> > The agreement to establish the link was reached in Geneva June 20, about 
> > eight months after the Cuban crisis. The idea had been studied for several 
> > years.
> > Since June, Soviet and American technicians have been rushing to install 
> > the equipment by a Sept. 1 deadline.
> >
> > Four American Teletype machines- the 66-word-a-minute Model 28 
> > manufactured by Teletype Corporation of Chicago- were carried to Moscow by 
> > plane in July and installed in the Kremlin by Aug. 1.
> > Four comparable Soviet machines, built in East Germany, arrived last 
> > weekend at the Soviet Embassy here and were delivered to the Pentagon on 
> > Monday. On Tuesday, the machines were installed in an office in the 
> > section of the Pentagon occupied by the office of the Joint Chiefs of 
> > Staff.
> >
> > American technicians report that the German-built equipment was "very 
> > good" and that the installation and the first test transmissions in the 
> > last few days had gone "remarkably smoothly." The two countries also 
> > exchanged a year's supply of spare parts, special tools, operating 
> > instructions and telecommunication tape. In addition, there was an 
> > exchange of encoding equipment, which undernormal circumstances is treated 
> > with the highest secrecy.
> > According to officials, the nature of the encoding equipment was a major 
> > difficulty in working out the hot line agreement. It was finally decided 
> > that what is known as "one time tape system encoding equipment" would be 
> > used.
> > This equipment is employed by commercial as well as military 
> > communications systems, so that no military secrets were divulged in 
> > making it available to the Soviet Union.
> >
> > The one time tape system, regarded as being virtually "breakproof" by 
> > cryptographers, works in this fashion:
> > As the Teletype tape containing a message is fed into one transmitter, an 
> > encoding "keying tape" is fed into another transmitter. The result is to 
> > scramble up the letters in the outgoing message so that it is 
> > unintelligible.
> > At the receiving end, the same keying tape is fed into the Teletype, and 
> > the message comes out decoded. A keying tape is used only once, thus 
> > making the coding system impervious to "breaking" by cryptographic 
> > analysis.
> > Under the agreement, the two sides exchange keying tapes. Thus, when the 
> > Russian center wants to send a message, for example, it sends along a 
> > number identifying the tape to be used in the Pentagon machines.
> >
> > Circuit's Route Given
> >
> > The two terminals are linked by cable and radio circuits, with the two 
> > sides sharing the cost of leasing the circuits from commercial companies. 
> > The cost is expected to range from $80,000 to $90,000 a year.
> > The principal circuit is a land-line and ocean cable connection running 
> > from Wahington to London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow.
> >
> > It is a duplex telegraph circuit capable of handling two simultaneous 
> > Teletype transmissions.
> > In addition, there is a duplex radio circuit going from Washington to 
> > Tangier in North Africa and from there to Moscow.
> > The radio circuit will be used for coordinating operations between the two 
> > terminals. But it will also be used as a stand-by Teletype connection, in 
> > the event that trouble develops on the land-line connection. 
> 
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