The U.S. President never had a “red phone” during the Cold War.

Phone in the oval office

The ominous “red phone” on the desk of the U.S. President has been portrayed in movies and political commercials, and even makes an appearance in Jimmy Carter’s presidential museum. There’s just one issue: It never existed. Not only was the Cold War-era emergency hotline between the U.S. and Soviet Union not a red phone, but it wasn’t a telephone at all. After a 1963 meeting in Geneva, a communication system was created that linked teletype machines to send written messages via transatlantic cable. The catalyst for the Washington-Moscow “nuclear hotline” was the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which led both the United States and the Soviet Union to fear a scenario in which they could not communicate quickly enough during an emergency, leading to nuclear war.

What’s more, the U.S. side of the hotline wasn’t even in the White House; it was installed at the Pentagon headquarters in Virginia on the other side of the Potomac. In 1986, the communication system was upgraded to high-speed fax, and in 2008 both sides shifted into the 21st century with email. In 2013, President Barack Obama’s administration added a new channel to the hotline to be used for communication specifically about cybersecurity. Technicians still test the hotline on an hourly basis, sending messages back and forth. As to where the red phone myth began, most evidence points to Hollywood. In 1964, two movies, Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe, referenced a “red phone” in the context of the Soviet government and a nuclear emergency.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

At least seven U.S. Presidents have officially used the Washington-Moscow hotline.

The first official use of the Washington-Moscow hotline occurred during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, though the specifics of the communication are unknown. Richard Nixon used the hotline at least twice in an official capacity. Once was during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and another time was during 1973’s Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. Jimmy Carter contacted the Soviets via the hotline to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Ronald Reagan used it frequently, even in nonemergency situations toward the end of the Cold War. George H.W. Bush used it during the Gulf War and George W. Bush did during the invasion of Iraq, and in 2016, Barack Obama used the communication channel to warn against Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.