These are accidents in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, etc - see "Broken Arrows".
#1 Lesson: If a nuclear weapon does detonate, don't immediately assume enemy action.
The USAF attempted a coverup, classifying the incident as "no press interest anticipated."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_States_Air_Force_n...
We're also extremely lucky no rogue Air Force generals or the guys in the bunkers just said "fuck it" and launched missiles. Until Permissive Action Link system was set up, there was no presidential authority required on a technical level.
When PAL was set up, the Air Force set all the weapons to "00000000." I wish I were making that up. They did it to subvert the PAL program because the generals resented having to ask for authority to launch nukes in event it was necessary.
We're also extremely lucky there haven't been any nuclear incidents involving the team that transports nuclear weapons and weapons-grade material. They're reportedly underfunded, underpaid, and overworked. They've had numerous incidents involving team members getting drunk, as well as losing their service weapons.
The US nuclear weapons program, at least in the mid 2000's, was a clown show.
On the downside, it also increases my probability estimate that terrorist groups have some weapons-grade fissile material.
While I overall agree with your point, the (alleged) reasoning behind having PAL codes at 00000000 was mainly about being _unable_ to retaliate in certain decapitation attack scenarios. I don't know how realistic this was, or to what degree it was just an excuse to get away with the behavior you quote.
More than "several". This declassified document goes on for 225 pages, and it's only as of 1967:
https://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/filer_p...
I guess we can agree there were a multitude of fuckups that almost resulted in an unintended nuclear explosion, but far fewer events of the specific nature I mentioned.
Worth noting: there is an American Experience documentary based on this book (with a primary focus on the Damascus incident), but it’s nowhere near as good as the text.