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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn The Event Of Attack, Here's How The Government Plans 'To Save Itself'
http://www.npr.org/2017/06/21/533711528/in-the-event-of-attack-heres-how-the-government-plans-to-save-itselfLISTEN: Terry Gross
.................. Graff had stumbled onto one of the government bunkers designed to protect U.S. leaders in the event of a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon attack most of which were built at the outset of the atomic age and throughout the Cold War.
"It was a facility that I had never heard of, that wasn't on any map ..." Graff says. "It just made me so curious to go back and understand what the history of these plans were, and what they are in modern times as well."
The result of that curiosity is Graff's new book Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself While the Rest of Us Die. Based in part on recently declassified documents, it describes the bunkers designed to protect government leaders, lines of succession to replace officials who are killed, and the roles for various agencies in the event of catastrophe.
"Part of what makes these plans so interesting is thinking through ... this idea of what you're going to save for America," Graff explains. "If you're trying to preserve and restart the government after an attack, [it] becomes this very existential question about what is America? Are you trying to preserve the presidency? Are you preserving the three branches of government? Or are you preserving even the historical totems that have bound us together across generations as Americans?" ................
"It was a facility that I had never heard of, that wasn't on any map ..." Graff says. "It just made me so curious to go back and understand what the history of these plans were, and what they are in modern times as well."
The result of that curiosity is Graff's new book Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself While the Rest of Us Die. Based in part on recently declassified documents, it describes the bunkers designed to protect government leaders, lines of succession to replace officials who are killed, and the roles for various agencies in the event of catastrophe.
"Part of what makes these plans so interesting is thinking through ... this idea of what you're going to save for America," Graff explains. "If you're trying to preserve and restart the government after an attack, [it] becomes this very existential question about what is America? Are you trying to preserve the presidency? Are you preserving the three branches of government? Or are you preserving even the historical totems that have bound us together across generations as Americans?" ................
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In The Event Of Attack, Here's How The Government Plans 'To Save Itself' (Original Post)
L. Coyote
Jun 2017
OP
TBA
(825 posts)1. I remember after 9-11 a woman was interviewed.
She had bought a dozen gas masks. I remember wondering which of the eleven people in her life would be given a mask and would she be willing to watch the others die?
Who would be willing to go into a bunker knowing you were abandoning your family?
I think there are things worse that death.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)2. What to do if Yellowstone blows?
If one survives at all?
d_r
(6,907 posts)3. Well, yeah
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)4. Mine shafts?
LiberalLoner
(9,762 posts)5. I stayed at Site "R" one week on exercise
It was kind of interesting. Missed having a mirror to do my makeup in though. Polished steel wasn't that great of a mirror.