Russia's doomsday device, codenamed The Dead Hand. May or may not still be operational.
As far as anyone knows, the Dead Hand remains operational. What is truly worrying, even today, is the secrecy that continues to surround the whole subject. Thompson has found that neither George Schultz nor former CIA director James Woolsey had heard of the Dead Hand system. Former Soviet era officials will still not discuss it. One who dared to talk died in mysterious circumstances. Such secrecy is, as Dr Strangelove realised, disastrous: ‘Yes, but the…whole point of the doomsday machine…is lost…if you keep it a secret! Why didn’t you tell the world, eh?’
The doomsday machine is supposed to be the ultimate deterrent. But if no one knows that the deterrent exists… Well, you’ve all seen the final scenes of Dr Strangelove.
(Yeah. Been gone for a bit. Working on projects. Back now. Boom.)
