Garrett M. Graff

“September 27, President Bush addressed the nation, saying, “The prospect of a Soviet invasion into Western Europe, launched with little or no…

— Garrett M. Graff

“few civilians understood that so much of FEMA’s resources went to its primary mission behind the scenes—coordinating the nation’s COG efforts—and that…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The nation’s Charters of Freedom were also evacuated from the capital. The attorney general ruled that the Library of Congress had the…

— Garrett M. Graff

“In 1994, the FBI discovered its agent Robert Hanssen—a longtime spy for the Soviet Union—had on August 7, 1989, placed in a…

— Garrett M. Graff

“After initial annoyance about the surprise drills, the Pentagon quickly saw value in the president’s interest. “It is the first time in…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Around 9:30 a.m., Secret Service agent Jimmy Scott told Cheney he needed to evacuate. Without giving the vice president a moment to…

— Garrett M. Graff

“again concluded that the Soviet Union “with a high degree of confidence” could kill the president, vice president, and all fourteen remaining…

— Garrett M. Graff

“To address concerns about how the cellular networks were overloaded during the 9/11 attacks, the government quietly launched the Wireless Priority Service…

— Garrett M. Graff

“roadway, got trapped under an overpass. FEMA created its own mobile command center effort, known as Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS) units—eventually…

— Garrett M. Graff

“President Nixon and Kissinger were joined for the promotion ceremony by CIA director Richard Helms and Defense Secretary Laird; all the men…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The Pentagon maintained dozens of other specific relocation facilities for various agencies and units, including a backup facility for the Navy at…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Eisenhower was certain any war with the Soviet Union would become a nuclear war, and any nuclear war would escalate into a…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The increasingly advanced and elaborate presidential planes were decked out with survival gear like parachutes—always five extra more than the passengers it…

— Garrett M. Graff

“the National Program Office called the Presidential Successor Support System, or PS3 for short. The five preselected PS3 teams each consisted of…

— Garrett M. Graff

“OUTPOST MISSION, the presidential helicopter search-and-rescue team in Pennsylvania, was also disbanded in 1970, as atomic weaponry progressed to the point where…

— Garrett M. Graff

“This blockade and political action, I see leading into war. I don’t see any other solution,” LeMay said to Kennedy in one…

— Garrett M. Graff

“. Unable to find a master list of what military assets they could use, NORAD personnel opened phone lists and began to call…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The secret Canadian Central Emergency Government Headquarters, known colloquially as the “Diefenbunker,” after Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, had been built beginning in…

— Garrett M. Graff

“His game-theory-based approach was, in certain respects, merely an extension of Eisenhower’s nuclear diplomacy—trying to raise uncertainty in the Soviet mind about…

— Garrett M. Graff

“Curator David Finley called his friend Edith Vanderbilt, who agreed to hide the nation’s most precious artworks—sixty-two paintings and seventeen sculptures—at the…

— Garrett M. Graff

“At the Pentagon, for instance, in the NMCC’s secure Emergency Actions room, military officials could find anyone in the Constitution’s line of…

— Garrett M. Graff

“One informed theory holds that the secret procedures have a specific, defined role for a small, preselected set of congressional leaders—perhaps as…

— Garrett M. Graff

“and departments planned to operate with even fewer staff: The National Mediation Board only had slots for its chair and an alternate;…

— Garrett M. Graff

“The Health and Human Services emergency command post, just a block from the National Mall in Room 313-10 in its headquarters basement,…

— Garrett M. Graff

“In what commanders and technicians realized in hindsight was a bad decision, the test messages were identical to the real alert messages…

— Garrett M. Graff