Putin is Insane! “An Accidental Nuclear War Might Occur” — A Warning From Former U.S. Officials

With the growing danger of the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, there is a book that is attracting a lot of attention.

The Nuclear Button: The New Nuclear Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump” (Asahi Shimbun Publications), published in July 2008. The authors are William Perry, one of the “Four Wise Men of the United States” who served as Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and others, and Tom Colina, a policy director with expertise in defense issues.

The book introduces the “danger of nuclear war” that was actually occurring and warns against the president’s exclusive authority to launch missiles. In the introduction, the author describes the damage that would occur in the event of a nuclear attack by the United States and Russia as follows:

The major cities of both countries would disappear, and tens of millions of people would die in an instant from explosions and radiation. Even if lucky, hundreds of millions would be seriously injured. But there are no hospitals or doctors to treat the survivors. Smoke and soot from burning cities will envelop the earth, blocking sunlight for years, and nuclear winter will arrive. There will be no sunlight, no heat, no food, and within two to three years, nearly all of humanity’s seven billion people will starve.

In both the U.S. and Russia, the decision to launch a nuclear strike is the exclusive prerogative of the president, and on February 27, President Putin ordered all deterrents, including nuclear missiles, to “special readiness” and suggested their use. Nuclear war is by no means fictitious.

The president is on a lot of drugs and alcohol

Even those who are considered competent and capable of making calm decisions make mistakes. Successive U.S. presidents have often had the danger of accidentally pressing the “nuclear button.” There was a fear of nuclear monopoly. The book points out that:

First, it discusses President Kennedy (in office from 1961 to 1963), who overcame the “Cuban Crisis” of 1962, when the former Soviet Union established a nuclear base in Cuba.

He was plagued by severe chronic pain and took a larger dose of medication than the public knew at the time.

Reagan, who was president from 1981-89,

[Reagan] was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994, after he left the White House, but signs of the disease appeared while he was in office.

Most disturbing was President Nixon (in office 69-74), who “had a tendency to drink too much alcohol.” When the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1973 was on the brink of nuclear war, Nixon was too drunk to respond, according to the report.

The Soviet Union was also involved in this conflict. A ship destined for Egypt was armed with nuclear weapons. The book includes a graphic exchange between Scowcroft, an aide to the president, and Kissinger, the secretary of state.

Scowcroft: “The switchboard has received a call from 10 Downing Street [the British Prime Minister’s residence] asking if the President can receive a call from the Prime Minister within 30 minutes. On the agenda is the Middle East.”

Kissinger: “Can you tell me you can’t?　I spoke to the President and he was drunk.”

If a drunken Mr. Nixon had been involved in the negotiations, then there could have been unimaginable outcome. The administration staff at the time recalled that “an upset president was in danger of sending us into a holocaust.”

Even President Putin, who has suggested the use of nuclear weapons, does not always make the right decision. Accidental nuclear war could happen at any time.