Charles Fitzgerald watches as an Airman operates the hotline teletype in the early 1960s. Army.mil
Bryan Bender, Politico: The hotline to Moscow goes cold
Deep inside the Pentagon, in the National Military Command Center, is the so-called red phone that has connected the U.S. and Russian high commands since after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
First a teletype, then a fax, and now a secure email and chat link, the emergency hotline was designed to prevent nuclear Armageddon. It is still tested regularly but seldom used — and not during the Ukraine or Syria crises, according to a Pentagon official.
“There’s no real need to — there are so many avenues to talk with the Russians,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
WNU Editor: The U.S. - Russian hotline may be "dead" right now because there are many other avenues available for discussion between the two sides .... unfortunately .... these other avenues do not carry the same urgency or importance as a designated "hotline". Back room channels have also played a critical role in the past for defusing tensions or misunderstandings, and while I am not privy to the current state of these networks, recent news and events tell me that even these lines of communications are now "dead".
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