“The security offered inside a bank safe even became fodder for a 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone, in which mild-mannered, bookish bank clerk Henry Bemis, who locked himself inside the bank’s safe each day to read during his lunch… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“Humphrey had even visited the CASPER facility on multiple occasions under the cover of darkness during vacations at the Greenbrier. In 1970, after his… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“In many ways, after many decades, many billions of dollars, and countless advances in technology, the federal government’s basic plan to escape a catastrophe… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“Kennedy, who had campaigned strongly on the “Missile Gap” issue, soon discovered as president that the Soviet Union didn’t have the 500 missiles feared—it… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“Hundreds more staff could join the ship in an emergency. (One young Navy ROTC officer, Bob Woodward, who went on to be a prizewinning… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“waned. Efforts to protect civilian life fell by the wayside and a fourth and final grim phase of nuclear reality settled over the United… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“updates to the nation’s nuclear weapons policies represented just the third major shift in the Cold War; following Eisenhower’s “massive retaliation” and the “assured… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“The president called upon the Marine emergency evacuation helicopter that the White House Military Office had stationed nearby in the event of a surprise… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“things went quickly awry. Thermonuclear bombs were still not well understood and the weapon, code-named CASTLE BRAVO, turned out to be three times more… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“inside forget they were hiding in an underground bunker. Under normal circumstances, personnel approaching the PEOC would arrive at its locked vault door, located… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“literally rocketing into the sky at a seemingly impossible steep pitch as it activated for the first and only time in its history a… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“The commission also confronted one of the strangest and most nettlesome phrases in COG operations—a seemingly unnecessary aside in the language guiding presidential succession… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“Court Clerk Harold Willey was dispatched by Warren to spend a fall weekend scouting Asheville for a possible relocation facility. “Because all large cities… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“The U.S. would have to “reinterpret” the Constitution to provide for preemptive searches and seizures when atomic terrorism was involved. Remarkably, over the decades… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“The crash program for building the “super” dwarfed even the Manhattan Project. The AEC nearly tripled in size, growing from a handful of sites… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“In an era where detailed maps and especially aerial surveillance were scarce, the government carefully maintained redundant map sources far from the capital: The… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
