THE BRIEFCASE THAT CONTAINS A MENU FOR DOOMSDAY

The football doesn’t have a trigger or a “big red button.” It is a communications device for contacting the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Military Command Center. In the event of nuclear war, a president would review a menu of preset plans to decide the targets and dimensions of the attack. To ensure continuity of the nation’s defense, the vice president has a duplicate of the nuclear football.