“The programs and planning are buried inside innocuous-sounding entities like the Pentagon’s Center for National and Nuclear Leadership Command Capability, FEMA’s Special Programs Division, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Balanced Survivability Assessment branch, or the Joint System Engineering and Integration… — Garrett M. Graff Copy Share Image
“During his first week on the job, McNamara sat down with the Pentagon’s Weapons Systems Evaluation Group (WSEG), which had just completed an intensive study, known as WSEG Report #50, that found that a Soviet surprise attack on only five… — 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
