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That is exactly where it should remain, and we Democrats mean to keep it there ... I am disturbed when I hear anyone speak so glibly and loosely on the use of these weapons and who should make the decision to use them.'' The Democratic platform specifically declares: "Control of the use of nu clear weapons must remain solely with the highest elected official in the country—the President of the United States." Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee Hubert Humphrey is going around asking audiences: "The question before the electorate is simple, prophetic, profound—which of these men, Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater, do you want to have his hand on the nuclear trigger?" (As against that, G.O.P. Veep Nominee William Miller says that by the time a NATO commander under attack got in touch with Johnson to see if he could use nuclear weapons, it "might be too late if he had to get Lyndon on the phone driving his car at 100 miles an hour in Texas.")
In Ghastly Hues. Johnson himself conjures up Dr. Strangelove-type images of the "madman" who unleashes nuclear war. He paints a picture of any such war in ghastly hues. Said he in his Detroit Labor Day speech: "In the first nuclear exchange, 100 million Americans and more than 100 million Russians would be dead. And when it was over, our great cities would be in ashes, and our fields would be barren, and our industry would be destroyed, and our American dreams would have vanished." Last week, in Seattle, Lyndon upped his casualty figures to 300 million, not including "unborn generations forever maimed." Without ever precisely saying so, he gives the strong impression that he will never let any such catastrophe happen by reason of having delegated an iota of his authority to anyone, including a NATO commander.
Does the President of the U.S. really believe that 100 million of his countrymen would be killed in "the first exchange"? If so, it would be only minimum prudence, not to say Christian charity and perhaps even good politics, for him to begin immediately the greatest shelter-building program imaginable, to save possibly 1%, or 1,000,000, of the doomed.
Ignorance & Inaccuracy. Between the opposing positions on control over the use of nuclear weapons, there is a vast area of ignorance—or, to use the kindest word, inaccuracy.
There is a general supposition that U.S. law requires that the signal for use of any sort of nuclear weaponry must come directly from the President. There is no such provision in the law. The Atomic Energy Act of 1946, as amended, in its most relevant clause provides only that the President may direct the Atomic Energy Commission "to deliver such quantities of special nuclear material or atomic weapons to the Department of Defense for such use as he deems necessary in the interest of national defense."
Of course, the President, in his constitutional role as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, has final responsibility for all matters pertaining to the national defense. But he can, must, and in countless ways does delegate his authority every day of his White House life. There is nothing whatever in the law to prevent him from delegating to, say, a NATO commander, authority to use nuclear weapons under certain circumstances.