{"id":46549,"date":"2017-11-19T14:50:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T14:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/11\/19\/trump-era-sparks-new-debate-about-nuclear-war-authority\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:03:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:03:05","slug":"trump-era-sparks-new-debate-about-nuclear-war-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2017\/11\/19\/trump-era-sparks-new-debate-about-nuclear-war-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump era sparks new debate about nuclear war authority"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 It\u2019s hard to overstate how thoroughly the U.S. military has prepared for doomsday \u2014 the day America gets into a nuclear shooting war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No detail seems to have been overlooked. There\u2019s even a designated \u201csafe escape\u201d door at the nuclear-warfighting headquarters near Omaha, Nebraska, through which the four-star commander would rush to a getaway plane moments before the first bomb hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procedures are in place for ensuring U.S. nuclear weapons are ready for a presidential launch order in response to \u2014 or in anticipation of \u2014 a nuclear attack by North Korea or anyone else. There are backup procedures and backups for the backups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet fundamental aspects of this nightmare sequence remain a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, what would happen if an American president ordered a nuclear strike, for whatever reason, and the four-star general at Strategic Command balked or refused, believing it to be illegal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Kehler, a retired general who once led that command, was asked this at a congressional hearing last week. His response: \u201cYou\u2019d be in a very interesting constitutional situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By interesting, he seemed to mean puzzling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian McKeon, a senior policy adviser in the Pentagon during the Obama administration, said a president\u2019s first recourse would be to tell the defense secretary to order the reluctant commander to execute the launch order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then, if the commander still resisted,\u201d McKeon said as rubbed his chin, \u201cyou either get a new secretary of defense or get a new commander.\u201d The implication is that one way or another, the commander in chief would not be thwarted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In this Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, file photo, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, then the incoming commander of the United States Strategic Command, speaks to reporters following a change of command ceremony at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb. (Nati Harnik\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The current head of Strategic Command, Gen. John Hyten, said Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada that he would refuse a launch order from a president if he believed that order to be illegal. Hyten also predicted that the president would then ask him for options that Hyten judged to be legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\t