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My recent post about two “Presidents” with the power to launch nuclear attacks sounds technologically very difficult, but it’s not impossible. Even biometric modification can happen if an adversary has enough money.

But as is true with anything, the technology is easy. The business part is the difficult part.

And most would argue that there is absolutely no way that a scam like this could be pulled off, especially since it would require inside cooperation.

Perhaps you’d better sit down.

August 9, 1974

Washington, DC was in a very confused state on August 9, 1974. When the day began, Richard Nixon was President and Gerald Ford was Vice President. Several hours later Ford would be President and there was no Vice President. (If Ford had suddenly died, Speaker of the House Carl Albert would have become President. If you thought the events of 1973 and 1974 were wild enough, imagine if Albert had become President.)

The morning of August 9 was carefully choreographed, but I am going to concentrate on two events involving Richard Nixon, Alexander Haig, and Henry Kissinger.

• The first occurred at about 10:35 am when President Richard Nixon’s helicopter lifted off from the South Lawn, headed toward what was then Andrews Air Force Base.

• The second occurred later, at about 11:35, when White House Chief of Staff walked into the office of Henry Kissinger, in Kissinger’s capacity as Secretary of State. Haig’s arrival was expected, as was the signed letter that he bore from President Nixon (en route to California). The letter was short.

“I hereby resign the Office of President of the United States.”

Kissinger indicated his receipt of the resignation and maintained communications with critical people, including Vice President Gerald Ford.

But there was one other critical person: the Secretary of Defense, James Schlesinger.

And there was one very important part of the choreography that wasn’t mentioned publicly that day.

Back to the Helicopter

I don’t know if “biscuits” existed in 1974, but footballs certainly did. And certainly the concept of continuity hadn’t yet matured to the Carter-Mondale level. But everyone agreed that according to the Constitution, on that day Richard Nixon remained President of the United States until he didn’t.

But according to reality, Nixon was…stressed.

“Schlesinger feared that the president, who seemed depressed and was drinking heavily, might order Armageddon. Nixon himself had stoked official fears during a meeting with congressmen during which he reportedly said, “I can go in my office and pick up a telephone, and in 25 minutes, millions of people will be dead.” Senator Alan Cranston had phoned Schlesinger, warning about “the need for keeping a berserk president from plunging us into a holocaust.””

And Schlesinger acted. When a liberal Democratic Senator demands action from a conservative Administration, sometimes things happen.

While some of the 1974 actions of Schlesinger, Kissinger, and Haig during the “final days” are murky, there is general agreement that Schlesinger gave a rather unusual order to the military.

“[I]n the final days of the Nixon presidency he had issued an unprecedented set of orders: If the president gave any nuclear launch order, military commanders should check with either him or Secretary of State Henry Kissinger before executing them.”

This is entirely against the Constitution. If the Vice President and Cabinet doubted the sanity of the President, the proper avenue was a 25th Amendment removal—not an inferior official disobeying the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief.

However, in those strange days, in which many things happened in secret, one can understand why Schlesinger did what he did.

But there was one other critical decision that was made on August 9.

Remember when President Nixon boarded the helicopter?

“[T]he most critical tool of the modern presidency had already been taken away from him. He never noticed it, but the nuclear “football” didn’t travel with him as he boarded the helicopter, and later, Air Force One for his flight back to California.”

Yes, the football. The thing that was ALWAYS with the President because the USSR could launch a nuclear attack at any moment.

Remember that Nixon was still President an hour after boarding the helicopter, when Kissinger received a visit from Haig. But if the U.S. had been attacked during that hour, the President couldn’t respond.

And the Vice President didn’t have the power to respond.

The football appears to have been in the custody of military aides outside the East Room, awaiting the moment that Gerald Ford would take the oath of office. (Although he was already President once Kissinger indicated his receipt of the resignation letter.)

But…who controlled the football?

Schlesinger?

Kissinger?

Carl Albert?

In the end nothing bad happened, but it could have.

And it’s therefore entirely possible that the aforementioned “two Presidents” scenario could happen.