nuclear football
Presidential launch codes
The nuclear football is the briefcase carried by a military aide accompanying the U.S. president at all times, containing the codes and communication equipment needed to authorize a nuclear strike.
The term emphasizes both the gravity of the contents and the idea that ultimate military power is always within the president's reach: The aide with the nuclear football stood just behind the motorcade.
- briefcasePortable document container
- presidentElected leader of nation
- doomsdayProphesied world's end
- commander-in-chiefHighest military authority holder
- aideSupporting staff member
military · authorization · Armageddon · Cold War · biscuit · classified · secure · plutonium · warhead · missile · apocalypse · retaliation · mutually assured destruction · fail safe · dead man's hand · chain of command · Air Force One · national security
- nuclear waratomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, ICBM, mushroom cloud, first strike
- Missilesmissile, ICBM, cruise missile, ballistic missile, guided missile
- nuclear weaponsatomic bomb, atom bomb, warheads, hydrogen bomb, a-bomb
- Continuityline of succession, presidential succession, chain of command, succession planning, vice president
nuclear footballpeace treaty
Formal end to hostilities
olive branch · white flag · nuclear disarmament · diplomatic pouch · Geneva Convention
nuclear footballplayground ball
Rubber sphere for schoolyard games
toy · beach ball · pigskin · game ball
nuclear, football, nucleus, nuclei, nucleic, nucleotide, nucleotides, thermonuclear, footballs