Former Commander: Here’s What Happens When the President Orders a Nuclear Strike

Posted August 11, 2017

External Article: Fortune

James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr., USN (Ret.), distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, wrote an article “Former Commander: Here’s what Happens When the President Orders a Nuclear Strike" for Fortune. 

Excerpt:

If the North Koreans have also managed to solve the other significant challenges associated with a viable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) — which is not at all certain — then they will have achieved an embryonic operational capability.

We knew this was coming. Yet now that the rhetoric is running high, many are concerned that we are on the brink of nuclear war. Even though the possibility of such a war is remote, it has evoked understandable curiosity among the public regarding how the U.S. chain of command would function for ordering a nuclear strike and whether or not sufficient checks and balances exist to prevent a costly mistake.

Read the article here.