Nuclear weapons were undoubtedly a nation's final trump card.
Before humanity had the ability to begin colonizing space, they had even been one of the most important forces maintaining the balance among the world's major powers.
Although under Nuclear Deterrence, everyone across the whole world trembled in fear, terrified that a terrifyingly powerful nuclear warhead would fall on their heads and blast human civilization straight from the industrial age back into the Stone Age.
It was undeniable, however, that this terrifying balance of strategic deterrence had brought Earth into the most peaceful period in its history.
But with the outbreak of World War III, humanity gained the ability to establish Colony Satellites in space, and the status of nuclear weapons gradually began to be replaced by more powerful and more environmentally friendly energy weapons and microwave weapons.
Among them, the Earth Alliance's "Cyclops" system and the ZAFT Army's "Genesis" were both outstanding examples.
However, both weapons were far too expensive to produce and could not yet replace relatively cheap nuclear missiles.
As one of the nuclear powers, the Atlantic Federation's nuclear launch mechanism still retained the characteristics of old America.
Simply put, the president had to press the nuclear button to initiate a nuclear strike, after which the Department of Defense would take over.
In peacetime, such an insolent demand from the military would inevitably have been rejected without hesitation.
But the problem was that, as the war progressed, the Atlantic Federation Government had long since lost control over its military.
The various major capital interest groups had all sent their own representatives into the fray, attempting to claim the largest slice of the cake from this war that would determine the future course of human society.
Thus, the president, nominally commander-in-chief of the armed forces, had long become nothing