Post by SysConfig on Oct 4, 2020 2:50:13 GMT
www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/10594/raven-rock-author-tells-us-how-our-government-plans-for-its-own-annihilation
The War Zone had a long discussion with Garrett Graff, the author of the fascinating new book, Raven Rock: The U.S. Government's Secret Plan To Save Itself While The Rest Of Us Die. We talked about everything from secret bunkers to how nukes spawned that development of modern communications, and of course all about government after America as we know it has been turned to ashes. It was a lively, eye opening, and bizarre discussion to say the least—just as one should expect when discussing the fine details of America's shadowy continuity of government plans.
Starting in the mid 1940s, a change swept across America and the world that catalyzed the growth of a massive and unprecedented security apparatus. Can you explain a bit about what continuity government is and where it springs from?
It's the term of art for a whole series of plans that grew up over the course of the Cold War, beginning during the Truman years that focused on how nuclear war would unfold, who would be involved, and then what would happen to America in the hours, days and weeks afterwards. And these plans focused not just on, you know, the officials and how they would be evacuated, and where they would be evacuated, but also what parts of the US government would continue, and how the country would try to rebuild and reconstruct and sort of reconnect with whatever citizenry and whatever was left of the country after a nuclear war.
Really, this book is the story of an unfolding technology revolution, and how nuclear weapons reshaped and created the modern presidency. Because they did two things. First was the president and other government officials needed to be in command and control and communication at all times. You couldn't have people lose touch for an hour or two, or even a day or two at a time. And that was a huge transition for the presidency, where in the 1800s and early 1900s you would have presidents take off from Washington for weeks or months at a time to travel around the country with very little command and control back in Washington.
Then once nuclear weapons arrived and then got stronger and then more plentiful, you had the beginning of the idea that entire cities could be wiped off the face of the planet with just a few hours notice at first, and then, by the end of the Cold War, with just a few minutes notice.
But Raven Rock, which is this enormous city within a mountain, could hold about five thousand people and is still in operation today, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is just one of scores of these bunkers in relocation facilities scattered around, as you say, what was known as the "relocation arc," this large stretch from Pennsylvania on down through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and then even down into North Carolina. And it included lots of bunkers, but also some more unhardened nuclear relocation facilities.
The state department set up its operations at a large farm. A beef cattle research farm in Virginia. And the US Information Agency built a massive radio transmitter facility down in North Carolina. The Supreme Court would have actually relocated to a mountain resort in Asheville, North Carolina, where they would've held court sessions in one of the reception halls.
And the bunkers, there were more than a hundred of them at the peak, one for almost every key government agency, and one for almost every cabinet department, with the big ones at Raven Rock, and then Mount Weather, which is where the president and his cabinet officials would have gone. Mount Weather is also still in operation today. And then the Greenbrier in West Virginia, which is where congress would have gone to a bunker that was hidden under a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs.
We know some of these facilities still exist today, and that some of them don't. Are there other ones that are out there that we still have no idea about, such as where they are or what they do?
Absolutely. Many of these facilities were shut down in the wake of the Cold War, but many still exist in all corners of the country. FEMA runs all of these continuity government programs—many people don't know that—and has a whole series of regional command bunkers around the country in places like Texas, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
And then there are bunkers like NORAD, which was made famous by the movie War Games in the 1980s. That bunker was originally shut down in the early 2000s and has actually been re-opened and re-activated in recent years in order to combat the possibility of a cyber attack, or an attack by a rogue nation.
ome of the continuity of government and civil defense plans you describe are totally bizarre, like harvesting pets for protein. What are some of the wildest parts of this type of planning you've found?
Every government agency had its own post nuclear functions. The post office was in charge of registering the dead and figuring out who was still alive. The National Park Service would help run the refugee camps, because the thinking was the national parks wouldn't have been targeted in a nuclear strike.
When you begin to talk about how to preserve the US government, you ask this very existential question of What is American? Are you trying to preserve the presidency? Are you trying to preserve the three branches of government? Or are you trying to preserve the historical totems and artifacts of our that sort of unite our country?
The National Archives sat down and decided that they were going to save the Declaration of Independence before they save the Constitution. The Library of Congress sat down and decided that they were going to save the Gettysburg Address before they save the George Washington Military Commission.
There was even a specially trained team of park rangers in Philadelphia whose job it was, during the Cold War, to evacuate The Liberty Bell in the event of a Soviet attack. And so this question about how do you save and preserve and restart America ends up being a deeply philosophical one, in addition to the very basic question of, you know, how do you actually just save and preserve the individual elected officials who lead the country?
s there a continuity of government scenario following a massive nuclear attack that won't lead to some sort of dictatorship, even if it's a temporary one?
The War Zone had a long discussion with Garrett Graff, the author of the fascinating new book, Raven Rock: The U.S. Government's Secret Plan To Save Itself While The Rest Of Us Die. We talked about everything from secret bunkers to how nukes spawned that development of modern communications, and of course all about government after America as we know it has been turned to ashes. It was a lively, eye opening, and bizarre discussion to say the least—just as one should expect when discussing the fine details of America's shadowy continuity of government plans.
Starting in the mid 1940s, a change swept across America and the world that catalyzed the growth of a massive and unprecedented security apparatus. Can you explain a bit about what continuity government is and where it springs from?
It's the term of art for a whole series of plans that grew up over the course of the Cold War, beginning during the Truman years that focused on how nuclear war would unfold, who would be involved, and then what would happen to America in the hours, days and weeks afterwards. And these plans focused not just on, you know, the officials and how they would be evacuated, and where they would be evacuated, but also what parts of the US government would continue, and how the country would try to rebuild and reconstruct and sort of reconnect with whatever citizenry and whatever was left of the country after a nuclear war.
Really, this book is the story of an unfolding technology revolution, and how nuclear weapons reshaped and created the modern presidency. Because they did two things. First was the president and other government officials needed to be in command and control and communication at all times. You couldn't have people lose touch for an hour or two, or even a day or two at a time. And that was a huge transition for the presidency, where in the 1800s and early 1900s you would have presidents take off from Washington for weeks or months at a time to travel around the country with very little command and control back in Washington.
Then once nuclear weapons arrived and then got stronger and then more plentiful, you had the beginning of the idea that entire cities could be wiped off the face of the planet with just a few hours notice at first, and then, by the end of the Cold War, with just a few minutes notice.
But Raven Rock, which is this enormous city within a mountain, could hold about five thousand people and is still in operation today, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is just one of scores of these bunkers in relocation facilities scattered around, as you say, what was known as the "relocation arc," this large stretch from Pennsylvania on down through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and then even down into North Carolina. And it included lots of bunkers, but also some more unhardened nuclear relocation facilities.
The state department set up its operations at a large farm. A beef cattle research farm in Virginia. And the US Information Agency built a massive radio transmitter facility down in North Carolina. The Supreme Court would have actually relocated to a mountain resort in Asheville, North Carolina, where they would've held court sessions in one of the reception halls.
And the bunkers, there were more than a hundred of them at the peak, one for almost every key government agency, and one for almost every cabinet department, with the big ones at Raven Rock, and then Mount Weather, which is where the president and his cabinet officials would have gone. Mount Weather is also still in operation today. And then the Greenbrier in West Virginia, which is where congress would have gone to a bunker that was hidden under a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs.
We know some of these facilities still exist today, and that some of them don't. Are there other ones that are out there that we still have no idea about, such as where they are or what they do?
Absolutely. Many of these facilities were shut down in the wake of the Cold War, but many still exist in all corners of the country. FEMA runs all of these continuity government programs—many people don't know that—and has a whole series of regional command bunkers around the country in places like Texas, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
And then there are bunkers like NORAD, which was made famous by the movie War Games in the 1980s. That bunker was originally shut down in the early 2000s and has actually been re-opened and re-activated in recent years in order to combat the possibility of a cyber attack, or an attack by a rogue nation.
ome of the continuity of government and civil defense plans you describe are totally bizarre, like harvesting pets for protein. What are some of the wildest parts of this type of planning you've found?
Every government agency had its own post nuclear functions. The post office was in charge of registering the dead and figuring out who was still alive. The National Park Service would help run the refugee camps, because the thinking was the national parks wouldn't have been targeted in a nuclear strike.
When you begin to talk about how to preserve the US government, you ask this very existential question of What is American? Are you trying to preserve the presidency? Are you trying to preserve the three branches of government? Or are you trying to preserve the historical totems and artifacts of our that sort of unite our country?
The National Archives sat down and decided that they were going to save the Declaration of Independence before they save the Constitution. The Library of Congress sat down and decided that they were going to save the Gettysburg Address before they save the George Washington Military Commission.
There was even a specially trained team of park rangers in Philadelphia whose job it was, during the Cold War, to evacuate The Liberty Bell in the event of a Soviet attack. And so this question about how do you save and preserve and restart America ends up being a deeply philosophical one, in addition to the very basic question of, you know, how do you actually just save and preserve the individual elected officials who lead the country?
s there a continuity of government scenario following a massive nuclear attack that won't lead to some sort of dictatorship, even if it's a temporary one?
Is there a continuity of government scenario following a massive nuclear attack that won't lead to some sort of dictatorship, even if it's a temporary one?
Part of what's striking is the extent to which the people who really got involved in this planning, effectively said, during the Cold War—and even after 9/11—that to the extent that the US government actually implemented any of these plans, it would generally involve suspending normal peacetime civil liberties, and it would generally involve effectively declaring some form of martial law.