Today marks the forty-third anniversary of the installation of the "red phone", the legendary hotline that connected the White House to the Kremlin during the Cold War. On June 20, 1963, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to establish a direct communications link between their capitals. In October of 1962, the world had teetered on the brink of nuclear war when, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev waited hours for diplomatic exchanges. At that time, the leaders of the superpowers had only two ways to communicate: directly, through personal meetings; and indirectly, through intermediaries. Later, diplomats from both nations agreed that better, faster communications could help avert future crises.
The memorandum of June 20, 1963 called for the establishment of a "full-time duplex-wire telegraph circuit" between Washington and Moscow via London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. A reserve radio link would connect Washington and Moscow via Tangier. Special underwater cable was laid in record time, a feat made more remarkable by the fact that the first transatlantic telephone cable had not been put in place until 1956. In Moscow, the terminal point was located in a basement under the Kremlin and called the "red phone"; however, the first hotline consisted of a teletypewriter instead of an actual telephone. During the Six Day War of 1967, the Soviet leadership used the "red phone" for the first time, for direct communications with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. According to Victor Sukhodrev, a Soviet translator, Prime Minister Aleksey Kosygin was surprised to learn that he could not speak with Johnson directly, but needed to wait for operators to type and transmit his messages.
During the 1970s, the establishment of satellite communications complemented the hotline's primary circuit and replaced the Washington-Tangier-Moscow line. The United States positioned Intelsat communications satellites at a geosynchronous orbit of 36,000 km while Soviet Molniya II satellites traveled along a highly elliptical, non-stationary path. Under the leadership of Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, the Kremlin replaced its "red phone" teletypewriter with an actual telephone. Improvements in technology did not necessarily improve the accuracy of communications, however. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter called Brezhnev to ask if the U.S.S.R. planned to invade Afghanistan. According to one account, the Soviet leader feigned ignorance and pretended to speak with his defense minister before answering nyet. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan on December 25, 1979.
The hotline was upgraded in 1986 to include a voice-transmitter, two improved satellite telephone channels, and high-speed facsimile transmission capabilities. For its part, the Soviet Union switched to stationary Gorizont-class satellites that could be monitored from the Vladimir space communications center. Today, Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin can use the hotline to exchange maps, diagrams, tables and other graphics. Although the Cold War is now over, the two leaders have used the red phone to discuss topics such as peace in the Middle East.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_telephone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2971558.stm
August 30, 1963: The Red Phone is Installed
Checking the Line
