s beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority. "To exceed" one’s authority is to go beyond what is actually allowed. Perhaps you’ve forgotten the provisions of Plan R, Sir. A "provision" of a plan is a particular agreement or condition, which may become effective if certain events happen. Plan R is an emergency war plan in which a lower echelon commander may order a nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack... "Echelon" is another word for rank or level of power. "Retaliation" is the act of hitting or striking back after having been attacked. ...if the normal chain of command has been disrupted. "The chain of command" is the order in which commands are passed down (from the President to Secretary of Defense to a General to lower officers and soldiers). If something is "disrupted," it is prevented from operating effectively or smoothly. Surely you recall when Senator Beaufort made that big hassle about our deterrent lacking credibility? A "hassle" is a problem or difficulty. In this context, "deterrent" is the power to convince the enemy not to attack because of the threat of an overwhelming counterattack. "Credibility" is believability. Plan R was to be a retaliatory safeguard. Here, the threat of a counterattack that is so deadly that the enemy (the Soviets) would never attack first. I admit that the human element seems to have failed us here. In this case, "the human element" refers to the unpredictability of human behavior or actions. They could knock out Washington, and yourself, as part of a sneak attack, and escape retaliation because of a lack of proper command and control. "To knock out" a city is to destroy it or severely damage it so that leaders living there could not communicate. "Retaliation" is the act of counter-attacking. In this context, "proper" means sufficient and "command and control" refers to the structure of military command, from the President on downward. Once they fly beyond failsafe, they do not require a second order to proceed. The "failsafe" point of a plane is the point beyond which it is in communication with home base. "To proceed" is to move forward. Why haven’t you radioed the planes, countermanding the go code? "To countermand" a previous order is to instruct people to ignore it or not follow it. A special coded device, which I believe is designated as CRM 114...is designed not to receive any messages at all... If something is "coded," it is in the form of a secret message that can only be read by certain people. A "device" is a machine or instrument. "To designate" something is to give it a specific name. ...unless the message is preceded by the correct three letter code group prefix. A reference to the secret three letters that would tell the pilots to ignore previous instr
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