A mushroom cloud rises from the detonation of a nuclear device bomb' in the 1950s. Picture: Supplied Source:Supplied
FOR nearly 20 years, the secret code authorising the launch of US nuclear missiles was terrifyingly simple. Just dial 00000000.
The code was in use between 1962, when John F Kennedy required the use of Permissive Action Link (PAL) security encoding on nuclear weapons, until 1977, the UK's Daily Mail reported.
In fact, Strategic Air Command chose the numbers to make the weapons quick and easy to launch.
There was concern that command centres or communication lines could be destroyed in war, preventing soldiers from getting the codes to launch missiles. Hence the easy code of eight zeros.
A paper written by Dr. Bruce Blair, who worked as a Minuteman launch officer in the 1970s, detailed how Strategic Air Command: "remained far less concerned about unauthorised launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders."
The code was even written down on a checklist for officials.
"Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialled into the panel."
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