The Cherry-Red Outcry Upward That Was Non On The Hotline

(UPDATED: March 5, 2016)

Today, it's just l years agone that the famous Washington-Moscow Hotline became operational. Allthough this link has ever been for written communications only, many people intend at that topographic point are carmine telephones on the Hotline, equally this is oft depicted inwards pop culture.

One wide-spread epitome is from the article well-nigh the Hotline on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It shows a non-dial carmine hollo upwardly which is on display inwards the Jimmy Carter Library in addition to Museum inwards Atlanta, Georgia:

(photo uploaded to Wikimedia yesteryear user Piotrus nether CC-BY-SA)

Much of the confusion well-nigh the existent role of this telephone was due to the fact that inwards this picture, the text on the plate below the telephone wasn't readable. But now, upon asking of this weblog, the curator of the Jimmy Carter Library in addition to Museum kindly provided the text, which reads equally follows:

RED PHONE
During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the “red phone” was a hotline to the Kremlin inwards Moscow. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 United States president could selection upwardly the telephone in addition to verbalise direct to Soviet leaders inwards times of crisis.
Reproduction

The text is well-nigh a carmine telephone used for the Hotline, but to a greater extent than of import is the fact that the hollo upwardly which is on display, is only a reproduction. This is equally good confirmed yesteryear the curator, who said that this telephone is a prop that the exhibition designer wanted to use.


Now it's clear that the actual carmine telephone inwards the painting was never used on the Hotline betwixt Washington in addition to Moscow, nor on whatever other secure hollo upwardly network (allthough carmine telephone sets were regularly used for predecessors of the Defense Red Switch Network, which is the primary secure phonation network of the the States military).

The painting on Wikipedia shows only an ordinary telephone set, similar the ones that are quite unremarkably used for emergency hollo upwardly lines of whatever sort which don't postulate a dialing capability. Probably because the designer of the exhibition at the Jimmy Carter Museum equally good catch at that topographic point were carmine telephones on the Hotline, such a mutual telephone educate was used to stand upwardly for this.

For people visiting the museum it must accept looked similar a confirmation of their catch of the carmine telephone hotline. When somebody uploaded a painting of this telephone to Wikipedia inwards March 2011, it shortly constitute its agency to articles well-nigh the Washington-Moscow Hotline inwards 11 languages, most of them erroneously maxim the Hotline equally good having a phonation capability. It was solely afterward query done for this weblog, which resulted inwards an extensive article well-nigh the Hotline final year, that only about of the Wikipedia articles were corrected.

UPDATE:
After the number of the incorrect attribution of the carmine hollo upwardly was raised hither on this weblog, the Jimmy Carter Library noticed this, in addition to replaced the description of the telephone equally of March 2016 alongside the next text, which is forthwith accurate:

"During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the “red phone” was used to communicate alongside United States military machine ascendency centers inwards a crisis. It was non the hotline to Soviet leaders, equally is oft shown inwards movies."

What the Washington-Moscow Hotline looks nowadays: the terminal room
at the Pentagon showing the secure estimator link equipment
(photo: www.army.mil, 2013)