Here's where the 'nuclear football' came from and why it follows US presidents wherever they go
Wherever a US president goes, a military aide carrying a heavy black briefcase follows. The case is always close by, just in case the president needs to unleash the devastating and destructive power of the US nuclear arsenal while out of the White House.
Every US president since Harry Truman, the only leader of a nuclear-armed state to authorize the use of nuclear force against an enemy, has had absolute authority over the use of nuclear weapons, and the "nuclear football" has been an important part of that presidential power for decades.
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The "football" exists for two reasons, Stephen Schwartz, a nonresident senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and an expert on the satchel, told Insider recently.
One, the briefcase "is the physical representation of the presidential authority" to order the use of nuclear weaponry, Schwartz said. Two, it exists because "we've been afraid that a surprise nuclear attack could catch us off guard and preclude any sort of retaliation."
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