China and the United States have agreed to establish a Cold War style hotline:

The U.S. and China aim to set up a telephone hot line between their militaries within a month after an agreement signed Feb. 29, the U.S. defense department said.

The deal was signed in Shanghai alongside a deal giving the U.S. access to China's military archives to search for missing servicemen from the Korean War and other conflicts, the official said.

"We welcome this important step forward in enhancing communication between our militaries," according to a U.S. defense department statement.

"The (hot line) will be a useful tool to make contact quickly, clarify issues and avoid miscalculations."

It added that the agreement allowed the two sides to move forward on installing the equipment over the next few weeks, meaning the hot line would probably become operational within a month.

A common misperception is that the hotline consisted of little red phones which sat on the desks of the Soviet Premier and POTUS. Not so (you can blame the movie Fail Safe for that particular urban legend). The Soviet hotline linked the Kremlin with the National Military Command Center, which in turn was able to summon the President at a moment's notice. The hotline was first used prior to the Six Day War, as Ivan was sweating the proximity of their Black Sea Fleet and the US Sixth Fleet in the eastern Med.

There have been more modern iterations of the hot line, which --I believe-- included satellite and fax technology, so who knows what communication equipment will be invoked to support a US-China link. I humbly suggest that President Bush and Wen Jiabo do it via AOL instant messenger, in the spirit of the digital age and all. There'd certainly be some cruel comedy in receiving a "nuKing u, lol!" text message just prior to Armageddon.