Jan 17 1978
From The Space Library
The Washington Post reported that the U.S. and USSR had opened a more reliable "hotline" using satellites, instead of telephone wires and undersea cables, to link the White House and the Kremlin. The direct line had been available since 1963 for use in an international emergency. The direct link would use the synchronous-communications satellite INTELSAT and the Soviet Molniya system of satellites. The previous hotline had been subject to unexpected interruptions, a potentially grave problem in event of tension between the two governments; it had been cut at least three times, once when a Finnish farmer cut a buried cable while cultivating land. (W Post, Jan 17/78, A-10)
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