A nice article about the so-called "Hotline"

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-such-a-thing-as-a-red-phone-in-the-white-house-1129598/?no-ist


One of the last statements in the article implies that the earlier system was infrequently tested, but I don't believe that to be the case.  I seem to remember a similar article written many years ago, and the system was constantly being checked.  What's interesting about that was that each side would send notes, quotations and passages, where either the origins or the words were obscure, to keep each set of translators on their toes.