Nuclear war Quote by Garrett M. Graff

“Among other items, the directive—the full details of which are still classified—called for wider COOP planning within government and transferred responsibility for COG planning from the NSC directorate that oversaw nuclear war planning, run by Bob Bell, to the directorate that oversaw nuclear…” quote by Garrett M. Graff — Download Open image

““Among other items, the directive—the full details of which are still classified—called for wider COOP planning within government and transferred responsibility for COG planning from the NSC directorate that oversaw nuclear war planning, run by Bob Bell, to the directorate that oversaw nuclear terrorism, run by Richard Clarke. President””

Garrett M. Graff

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Nuclear war Strategy

More by 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, after his time as vice president, Humphrey was reelected to the Senate from Minnesota, where, as a junior senator, he was no longer privy to the evacuation plans. Even though he knew that the Greenbrier existed—a fact that…

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 a catastrophe…

Garrett M. Graff

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“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

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“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

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“waned. Efforts to protect civilian life fell by the wayside and a fourth and final grim phase of nuclear reality settled over the United States. Soon grandiose plans gradually shrank to just a single, all-consuming governmental goal: protect the idea of a democratic leadership and preserve the National Command Authorities—that virtually never-ending succession line of officials authorized to launch the…

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 the “assured destruction” of the Kennedy era, Carter was, for the first time, planning for a grinding long-term war. “There would be a ‘day after,’ and millions of Americans would be around to face the post-strike realities,” Odom…

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 a surprise Soviet nuclear attack. The flight across Narragansett Bay lasted just six minutes, as opposed to the hour Eisenhower would have spent on the ferry—and the helicopter, piloted by Virgil Olson, was nearly triple the size 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 times more powerful than expected, a total of some 15 megatons. A four-mile-wide fireball engulfed everything around ground zero in under a second. Birds spontaneously combusted in the sky, and small animals as far away as 345 miles…

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 door, located…

Garrett M. Graff

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“literally rocketing into the sky at a seemingly impossible steep pitch as it activated for the first and only time in its history a classified system the presidential plane possessed to speed emergency launches. “There are only two 747s in the world that can take off like that—and they’re both called Air Force One,” a flight steward said, leaning over…

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 presidential succession known as the “supplantation clause,” which held that a prior-entitled presidential successor could supplant a lower-level officer who was serving as “acting president.” Harry Truman had felt that “elected” officials should always trump “appointed” officials in…

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 large cities are considered to be prospective enemy targets, a hotel in a secluded small city, wherein approximately one-hundred people could both live and work, with spaces available for a court room and clerical offices, seems a most…

Garrett M. Graff

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today's children are the first generation to grow up in a world that has the power to destroy itself.

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There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had those for a long time. But the United States right now is on a very much different defensive posture than we were before September 11th of 2001 He is, as far as we know, actively pursuing nuclear capabilities, though he doesn't have…

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