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film, in which the United States President sits together with all his military
generals and advisors in a round-table fashion. Of course, such a method of
congregation and concentrated planning (and instant execution) does not exist in
real life; actual politics during a crisis would be far more complicated and simply
would never fit into a single room. The War Room somewhat parallels the White
House Situation Room (a conference room and intelligence management center
in the basement of the West Wing of the White House used by the president and
his staff in crises); however, the Situation Room is still only used as a central hub
of information concentration during emergencies. Many other parts of the large
American government in other buildings and states interact with the occupants of
the room to agree on or reject decisions unlike the condensing of politics
shown in the film. The film also pays no heed to the role of the politically
ubiquitous American Congress in deciding war strategies and American policy,
presumably also to simplify politics enough for the average filmgoer to
understand. The president is shown to have all the decision-making power in a
time of emergency while only taking advice from others; this does not work in the
real world because of the American governmental system of checks and
balances. Before the president can act on any decision regarding the nation in
real life, Congress must approve of it. The president also may not directly call
another world leader on a standard phone and engage in open diplomacy, as the
films fictional president does constantly in the War Room. Many other logical and
factual discrepancies exist: Under no circumstances, for example, would anyone
other than the United States President be able to authorize a nuclear strike. And
even then, the president would have to have his Secretary of Defense agree with
his decision to utilize nuclear arms under the two-man confirmation rule. As such,
the premise of the films rogue nuclear launch is essentially real-life
impossibility, simply because of how serious the governments concern is over
nuclear arms authorization access.
so much that in many situations even basic common sense became warped by
their fears and doubts.
Overall, Dr. Strangelove has many historical, factual, and logical inaccuracies.
However, in this case, it is not the filmmakers duty to present the film as a 100%
accurate depiction of the time period in question. This is because the films
purpose is not to focus on the facts regarding the Cold War, but is instead to
portray the hysteria, fear, doubt, and radicalism during the Cold War period and
criticize it using satire. And to this end, Dr. Strangelove ultimately succeeds as a
historical film.