Roger D. Fisher is a Harvard Law School emeritus professor known for his innovative work in the field of peaceful conflict resolution and his best-selling book Getting to Yes: Negotiation and Agreement Without Giving In. But did you know what his idea was for the ICBM launch codes?
In 1981, Roger Fischer proposed implanting ICBM launch codes in a volunteer’s chest cavity. In an emergency, the volunteer would carry a knife with which to be killed. It was intended to use the impersonal killing off millions to force the personal killing of one man.
The Nuclear Code Decision
It’s nearly impossible to fully comprehend the ramifications of launching a nuclear strike and killing millions of innocent people. This may not be a problem for you because you will rarely have to decide whether to use nuclear weapons. However, if you have nuclear codes because you are President of the United States, for example, it is a problem, and someone needs to ensure you don’t get too trigger-happy.
Could you make an informed decision if it came down to knowing what horrors you were about to unleash on millions of civilians? In the 1980s, a Harvard academic and negotiation and conflict management specialist proposed a solution to this dissonance to the Pentagon: the nuclear codes should be embedded in the chest of a president’s colleague. The president would have to stab the codes out if he launched a nuclear missile. (Source: Boing Boing)
The Roger Fisher Proposal
In 1981, Harvard law professor Roger Fisher, director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, published a thought experiment in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: what if the codes to launch nuclear war were kept inside the chest cavity of a young volunteer, and the President would have to hack them out before launching Armageddon?
There is a young man, probably a Navy officer, who accompanies the President. This young man has a black attaché case which contains the codes that are needed to fire nuclear weapons. I could see the President at a staff meeting considering nuclear war as an abstract question. He might conclude: “On SIOP Plan One, the decision is affirmative. Communicate the Alpha line XYZ.” Such jargon holds what is involved at a distance.
My suggestion was quite simple: Put that needed code number in a little capsule, and then implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer. The volunteer would carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife as he accompanied the President. If ever the President wanted to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he could do so would be for him first, with his own hands, to kill one human being. The President says, “George, I’m sorry but tens of millions must die.” He has to look at someone and realize what death is—what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet. It’s reality brought home.
When I suggested this to friends in the Pentagon they said, “My God, that’s terrible. Having to kill someone would distort the President’s judgment. He might never push the button.”
Roger Fischer’s Proposal
(Source: Boing Boing)