Trump, Twitter, Nixon & the nuclear codes
Donald Trump has been, very belatedly, booted off Facebook and Twitter. People have commented that he still has access to the nuclear codes which given his volatile character is somewhat worrying.
There is however a bit more to a major capitalist power than that.
Trump was certainly behind what might be considered an attempt at a coup on 6th January. Some of his supporters stormed the Capitol Building in Washington with the aim of stopping the confirmation of Biden as President and hence, one presumes, keeping Trump in office.
Of course any coup attempt that consists of the conspiracy theorists of QAnon and associates is not likely to succeed. It has become clear though that off duty police and soldiers were involved and some police connived at the attempt.
I agree with those however who argue that it will take a lot more than that to disrupt the US political system. Capital can live with Biden for now anyway. The fascists will be back.
The same principle applies to the nuclear codes. Trump has access but he cant himself fire any missiles. Generals have to give the order and soldiers have to do it. We’re not quite in Dr Strangelove territory yet.
Nixon in the late 1960s tried to order a nuclear strike on North Korea when he was drunk one evening. Henry Kissinger may seem like an unlikely pacifist but it is thought he stalled the order until the morning when Nixon had sobered up and was persuaded to think better of it.
“If the president had his way,” Kissinger growled to aides more than once, “there would be a nuclear war each week!” This may not have been an idle jest. The CIA’s top Vietnam specialist, George Carver, reportedly said that in 1969, when the North Koreans shot down a US spy plane, “Nixon became incensed and ordered a tactical nuclear strike… The Joint Chiefs were alerted and asked to recommend targets, but Kissinger got on the phone to them. They agreed not to do anything until Nixon sobered up in the morning.”
https://www.theguardian.com/weekend/story/0,3605,362958,00.html
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