Garrett M. Graff

“Humphrey had even visited the CASPER facility on multiple occasions under the cover of darkness during vacations at the Greenbrier. In 1970,…

— Garrett M. Graff

“In many ways, after many decades, many billions of dollars, and countless advances in technology, the federal government’s basic plan to escape…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Kennedy, who had campaigned strongly on the “Missile Gap” issue, soon discovered as president that the Soviet Union didn’t have the 500…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Hundreds more staff could join the ship in an emergency. (One young Navy ROTC officer, Bob Woodward, who went on to be…

— Garrett M. Graff

“waned. Efforts to protect civilian life fell by the wayside and a fourth and final grim phase of nuclear reality settled over…

— Garrett M. Graff

“updates to the nation’s nuclear weapons policies represented just the third major shift in the Cold War; following Eisenhower’s “massive retaliation” and…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The president called upon the Marine emergency evacuation helicopter that the White House Military Office had stationed nearby in the event of…

— Garrett M. Graff

“things went quickly awry. Thermonuclear bombs were still not well understood and the weapon, code-named CASTLE BRAVO, turned out to be three…

— Garrett M. Graff

“inside forget they were hiding in an underground bunker. Under normal circumstances, personnel approaching the PEOC would arrive at its locked vault…

— Garrett M. Graff

“literally rocketing into the sky at a seemingly impossible steep pitch as it activated for the first and only time in its…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The commission also confronted one of the strangest and most nettlesome phrases in COG operations—a seemingly unnecessary aside in the language guiding…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Court Clerk Harold Willey was dispatched by Warren to spend a fall weekend scouting Asheville for a possible relocation facility. “Because all…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The U.S. would have to “reinterpret” the Constitution to provide for preemptive searches and seizures when atomic terrorism was involved. Remarkably, over…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The crash program for building the “super” dwarfed even the Manhattan Project. The AEC nearly tripled in size, growing from a handful…

— Garrett M. Graff

“In an era where detailed maps and especially aerial surveillance were scarce, the government carefully maintained redundant map sources far from the…

— Garrett M. Graff

“House Speaker Tip O’Neill, one of the few briefed on the evacuation procedures, recalled, “I kind of lost interest in it when…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Alaska, the push for greater command survivability revived one of SAC’s earliest 1960s-era plans for an alternate command post (ALCOP), a rail-mounted…

— Garrett M. Graff

“age COG—except for one minor problem. There was no clear communication system that would ensure the nation’s leaders didn’t end up living…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Our national security can only be assured on a very broad and comprehensive front. I am using the word ‘security’ here consistently…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Lyndon Baines Johnson, who had dreamed of the presidency since the earliest days of his career, who had toiled in that same…

— Garrett M. Graff

“For security reasons, the Defense Department for a period stopped listing Raven Rock publicly by name in its annual base reports, but…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Tyler himself narrowly escaped death as president when an explosion occurred while he was a passenger on the USS Princeton in 1844.…

— Garrett M. Graff

“September 11, 2001, and the subsequent anthrax attack on the U.S. Congress restarted a focus on COG and COOP planning that continues…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Truman’s farewell address on January 15, 1953, delivered five days before he left the renovated White House, is to this day one…

— Garrett M. Graff

“McNamara’s Lincoln Continental had idled at the curb outside Kennedy’s house, its high-tech radio car phone keeping an open line to the…

— Garrett M. Graff