This Is Only Test How Washington Prepared for Nuclear War (46 page)

Annex to White House Emergency Plan,” box 9, folder “White House Emergency Plan (1),” EAS; “Department of Defense Joint Emergency Evacuation plan (Short title: JEEP),” Appendix 1 to Annex E, December 23, 1961, accessed June 23, 2005 at Albert LaFrance, “A Secret Landscape: The Cold War Infrastructure of the Nation’s Capital Region”
http://coldwar-c4i.net/
.

1. Memorandum, October 26, 1962, box 414, folder “Court—Subject File— Marshal Civil Defense,” Papers of Earl Warren, LOC, Manuscript Division; George,
   Awaiting
   , 51–2; Ed Cray,
   Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren
   (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), 366–7, 399–400.
   
2. DCD, “Report on Operation Alert 1959,” May 18, 1959, box 6, folder “III (Reports)—Evaluations—Phase 1,” RG 396, Operations and Exercise Files, 1953–61, 5; DCD Newsletter, June–July 1962, AOC; “Just How Ready Is Washington for a Nuclear Attack?”
   WS
   , November 11, 1962, sec. C, p. 1.
   
3. “Chronologies of the Crisis”; Fursenko
   ,
   One Hell
   , 271–3. For transcripts of White House meetings on October 27, see May,
   Kennedy Tapes
   , 492–629.
   
4. Kevin Sullivan, “40 Years after Missile Crisis, Players Swap Stories in Cuba,”
   WP
   , October 13, 2002, sec. A, p. 28.
   
5. Robert L. O’Connell, “The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust,” in Robert Cowley, ed.,
   What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been
   (New York: Berkley Books, 2003), 251–72.
   
6. For more on the whereabouts of legislators during the crisis, see Robert C. Albright, “Politics Brings Varied Views of Cuban Actions,”
   WP
   , October 27, 1962, sec. A, p. 2; “Capital Praises Kennedy’s Stand,”
   NYT
   , October 29, 1962; Richard L. Lyons and Julius Duscha, “Politicians See No Clear Picture of Cuba Action’s Effect on Vote,”
   WP
   , October 30, 1962, sec. A, p. 1. For evacuation plans for Cabinet officials, see William Y. Elliott to Gordon Gray, October 14, 1960; Elliott to the Secretary of State, March 19, 1959, box 1, folder “Background Information on V.R. Program,” RG 59, 8.
   
7. McDermott to Hodges, November 9, 1962, box 6, folder “Special Facilities Branch,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 66A03.
   
8. George
   ,
   Awaiting
   , 52; E.L. Keenan, “Comments on Draft Emergency Operations Order,” October 2, 1959, box 6, folder “Federal, State & Local Plans,” RG 396, National HQ Files; Hubert R. Gallagher to Assistant Director for Plans and Operations, March 7, 1960, box 5, folder “Federal, State & Local Plans 1–8,” RG 396, Selected OCDM Central Files, 1959–60; G. Lyle Belsley, “Administrative Readiness Deficiencies,” November 6, 1962, box 2, folder “Emergency Planning,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 64A927.
   
9. Unsigned memorandum for files, October 16, 1962, box 4, folder “White House Information 1961–62,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 64A927.
   
10. Ralph Thompson to the General Counsel, January 25, 1961, box 17, folder “Relationships I-K,” RG 396, National HQ Files, 2; Charles Primoff memoran
    dum, April 10, 1970, box 40, folder “Government Preparedness 1969–72,” RG 396, Subject Files.
    

44. In 1962, the Soviet Union had 56 ICBMs, 104 SLBMs, and 263 strategic nuclear warheads deliverable by bombers. Steven J. Zaloga,
The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces, 1945–2000
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002), 248.

Postscript

1. Hampden-Sydney College historian to Christopher Bright, May 29, 2004.
   
2. Henry H. Ford to Mr. Crockett, February 14, 1963, box 1, folder “Front Royal”; W. Trone to Mr. Porter, November 18, 1963, box 2, folder “EP8 Vital Records Program—Discontinuance,” RG 59.
   
1. Robert Y. Phillips to Edward McDermott, October 10, 1963, box 6, folder “Special Facilities Branch,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 66A03; Stephen I. Schwartz, ed.,
   Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of
   
2. U.S.
   Nuclear Weapons since 1940
   (Washington, D.C.: Br
   ookings Institution Press, 1998), 213.
   
3. A. Weatherbee to Bernard Boutin, May 24, 1963, and Edward R. Murrow to Edward McDermott, August 30, 1963, box 6, folder “Special Facilities Branch,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 66A03; author phone interview with the Archivist of the Airlie Foundation, June 30, 2005.
   
4. Bill Gulley with Mary Ellen Reese
   ,
   Breaking Cover
   (New York: Simon and
   Schuster, 1980), 35–8. For more on the Kennedy fallout shelter, see Tom Vanderbilt,
   Survival City: Adventures among the Ruins of Atomic America
   (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), 141–4.
   
5. Albert LaFrance, “A Secret Landscape: The Cold War Infrastructure of the Nation’s Capital Region,” accessed June 28, 2005 at
   http://coldwar
   c4i.net/index.html
   .
   
6. Edward Zuckerman,
   The Day after World War III
   (New York: Viking, 1984), 62–6; “America’s Doomsday Project,”
   U.S. News & World Report
   107, no. 6 (August 7, 1989): 26–8. Zuckerman’s book remains the best full-length study of continuity of government preparations during the 1970s. For the Reagan admin
   istration’s continuity preparations, see James Mann, “The Armageddon Plan,”
   The Atlantic Monthly
   293, no. 2 (March 2004): 71–4.
   
7. DCD, “Government of the District of Columbia, Community Shelter Plan Study for Washington, D.C.,” vol. I, June 1965, Washingtoniana; DCD, “Shelter Provision Information,” February 6, 1963, AOC.
   
8. Northern Virginia Regional Planning Commission, “Community Shelter Program,” September 1968, Fairfax City Regional Public Library, Virginia Room.
   
1. J. George Stewart to Lyndon Johnson and John W. McCormack, July 24, 1963;
   
2. R.
   Stuart Hummel to T. Perry Lippitt, July 13, 1964; “Capitol Hill Emergency Self-Protection Plan,” July 1, 1968, AOC, 2, 16.
   
9. “Civil Defense Office Is Still with Us, Changed to Meet Peaceful Disaster,”
   Montgomery Sentinel
   , April 6, 1967, clipping, MCHS.
   
10. Donald Smith, “Oh, S
    o
    That’s
    Whatever Happened to Civil Defense,”
    WS Sunday Magazine,
    January 10, 1971.
    
11. Paul Hodge, “Civil Defense Studies Plan for Evacuation of Northern Virginia,”
    WP
    , January 20, 1977; Barbara Halliday, “ ‘The Ultimate Disaster’: In Nuclear Attack, Alexandrians Would Head for the Hills,”
    Fairfax Journal
    , June 30, 1978, sec. A, p. 2.
    
12. Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission,
    Clarksburg Master
    Plan and Hyattstown Special Study Area
    , June 1994, 1, 20–1.
    
13. I
    n
    Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley
    (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005), Margaret Pugh O’Mara explains how Cold War priorities and politics gave rise to high-tech,
    

university-centered communities or areas in California’s Silicon Valley, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

1. Paul E. Ceruzzi, “Operations Research, Military Contracting, and the Growth of Tysons Corner, Virginia, 1945–1970,” paper delivered at “Washington Builds for War: Defense, the Homefront, and Security in the Capital Region,” Sixth Biennial Symposium on the Historic Development of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., March 5, 2005, College Park, Md.
   
2. Kermit Parsons, “Shaping the Regional City: 1950–1990: The Plans of Tracy Augur and Clarence Stein for Dispersing Federal Workers from Washington, D.C.,”
   Proceedings of the Third National Conference on American Planning History
   (Hilliard, Ohio: The Society for American City and Regional Planning History, 1990): 689.
   
3. Ibid., 684.
   
4. See chapters 6 and 9.
   
5. Schwartz,
   Atomic Audit
   , 213.
   
6. Vanderbilt,
   Survival City
   , 139. Throughout his book, Vanderbilt provides fasci
   nating descriptions and analysis of missile silos, atomic test sites, and other “ruins of the atomic age.”
   
1. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States,
   The 9/11 Report
   (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004), 61; Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, “America’s Chaotic Road to War,”
   WP
   , January 27, 2002, sec. A,
   
2. p.
   1; “America under Attack,”
   Camera Works
   , September 13, 2001 and “Was Washington Prepared?,” news graphic,
   WP
   , September 17, 2001, accessed September 20, 2001 at
   http://www.washingtonpost.com
   .
   
7. Laura Meckler, “Emergency Plan Gets Full Tryout,
   ”
   Tulsa
   (Kans.)
   World
   , September 12, 2001, 7.
   
8. Paul Bedard, “Things that Go Bump in the Night at Cheney’s Cave,”
   White House Weekly
   , December 4, 2001.
   
9. The 9/11 Report
   , 61, 465–6; Howard Kurtz, “ ‘Armageddon’ Plan Was Put into Action on 9/11, Clarke Says,”
   WP
   , April 7, 2004, sec. A, p. 29.
   
10. Zuckerman,
    The Day After
    , 219–24.
    
11. Barton Gellman and Susan Schmidt, “Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret,”
    WP
    , March 1, 2002, sec. A, p. 1.
    
12. Steve Twomey et al., “District Unprepared to Cope with Attack,
    ”
    WP
    , September 17, 2001, sec. A, p. 1; Balz, “America’s Chaotic”; Dana Milbank, “Cheney Authorized Shooting Down Planes,”
    WP
    , June 18, 2004, sec. A, p. 1.
    
13. The Continuity of Government Commission,
    Preserving Our Institutions: The Continuity of Congress
    (May 2003), 14.
    
1. Carol D. Leonnig and Steve Twomey, “D.C. Developing New Emergency Plans in Response to Last Week’s Breakdown,”
   WP
   , September 18, 2001, sec. B, p. 1; “D.C.’s Trouble in the House,”
   WP
   , September 25, 2001, sec. A, p. 22; Spencer S. Hsu, “Sept. 11 Chaos Prompts Exit Plan,”
   WP
   , August 17, 2002, sec. A,
   
2. p.
   1; “Preparedness: D.C. Emergency Management Agency,” online discussion July 18, 2002, accessed August 17, 2002 at
   WP
   http://washingtonpost. com
   .
   
14. David Snyder, “Ready for This?,”
    WP
    , September 18, 2005, sec. B, p. 1; Sari Horwitz and Christian Davenport, “Terrorism Could Hurl D.C. Area into Turmoil,”
    WP
    , September 11, 2005, sec. A, p. 1.
    
15. DEMA,
    Family Emergency Preparedness Guide
    , evacuation map, accessed July 3, 2005 at
    http://dcema.dc.gov
    ; “Terrorism Could Hurl.”
    
16. Government of the District of Columbia,
    District Response Plan, The Basic Plan
    , 7–9. For an example of the lack of precise planning links, see
    Emergency Support Function #1: Transportation
    , 10 and 15, April 4, 2002, accessed July 3, 2005 at
    http://dcema.dc.gov
    .
    
17. Continuity Commission,
    Preser
    ving
    , ii.
    
18. “NSC 5802/1,” February 19, 1958 (revised May 15, 1958), box 23, folder “Continental Defense, 1957–61(1),” Disaster File, 9.
    
19. See chapter 7.
    

9/11 attacks, 186–7

Acheson, Dean, 47–9, 66 Agriculture Department Beltsville, Md., research station, 35,

62, 95 continuity of, 95, 106, 160, 183 Front Royal, Va., station, 94, 183 participation in exercises, 109, 128, 157

Air Force Air Defense Command, 82, 86 Air Defense Control Centers, 112–14 Air Defense Forces, 114, 149–50, 154 Continental Air Defense Command

(CONAD), 111, 14
9
Filter Centers, 82, 8
6
need for ground observers, 8
2
Operation Skywatch, 83–
6

Alert America
see under
Federal Civil Defense Administration Alternate Joint Communications Center

see
Site R American Heritage Foundation, 79 Anacostia

Naval Air Station at, 11, 113, 133 neighborhood of, 47, 138 River, 11, 26, 30, 35, 54, 84, 122, 177

Andrews Air Force Base, 1, 34, 66, 85,

184 Architect of the Capitol, 117, 167, 184 Arctic Circle, 10, 111 Arlington County, Va., 39, 151, 195 n.5 Army Corps of Engineers, 45–6, 64, 70,

72–3, 91, 102, 108, 171 Army Signal Corps, 65, 108, 127 Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)

discovery of Soviet bomb tests, 35, 99 dispersal to Germantown, Md., 5–6, 101–3, 144, 185 imagined attack on Washington, D.C., 36 relocation site of, 155

support of Alert America, 79 transfer of atomic weapons, 156 work on White House shelter, 70, 72

atomic weapons delivery systems for, 9–10 effects described, 9

AT&T, 65, 154, 156, 182
see also
Bell System attack warning signals
see under
Warning Red;

Warning Yellow systems, 7–8, 85, 111–13, 149–50, 154 time of, 6, 10, 47, 99, 105, 121–3,

142, 173, 175

see also
Distant Early War
ning Line; Washington, D.C., attack warning system of

Augur, Tracy advocacy of dispersal, 28–30, 60 background of, 28–9 dispersal plans for metropolitan

Washington, D.C., 32–43
,
104–5, 14
7
job with Office of Defens
e

Mobilization, 100 job as Urban Planning Officer, 30, 63
see also
dispersal

ballistic missiles, 6, 10, 132, 135–6, 142, 166, 175, 182, 235 n.44

see also
Nike antiaircraft missiles
Bartholomew, Harland, 143 Bascom, Willard, 114–15, 130, 133, 135 Beach, Edward, 98, 113–15, 126,

131–3, 150, 159, 162 Beers, Barnet, 123 Bell and Light system, 112–13, 116–17,

151, 168 Bell System, 65, 151

see also
AT&T
Berlin Crisis, 171–2 Berryville, Va., 5, 106, 151
Bloom, Nicholas Dagen, 147

Board of Commissioners explained, 3–4, 45 request for help from FCDA, 56–7 support for civil defense, 4, 46, 49,

54, 79, 12
2
during World War II, 14, 1
6
see also
Washington, D.C.
,

government of Boyer, Paul, 89 Brickner, Kenneth, 114–15, 133 Bull, Harold R., 22 Bureau of the Budget

decentralization and, 31, 62 dispersal and, 26, 31, 33, 37–8, 49, 61, 144 hostility toward Office of Civilian Defense, 14

relocation site of, 165–6 Bureau of Yards and Docks
see under
Navy Bush, George W., 186–7 Bush, Vannevar, 119

Caldwell, Millard, 56–7, 90–2, 171

Camp David communication system of, 155–6, 161 as presidential relocation site, 126–7,

166, 170, 183

as presidential retreat, 69 Capital Beltway, 115, 121, 185 Castro, Fidel, 174, 179 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

continuity of, 133, 155, 196 n.16 creation of, 19–21 Cuban Missile Crisis and, 176–7 move to Langley, Va., 103–5 opposition to dispersal, 103, 143–4 participation in exercises, 109 proposed dispersal of, 50, 101 relocation site of, 96 UFO scare and, 85

Chaney, Mayris, 13–14 Charters of Freedom, 158 Chavez, Dennis, 59–60 Cincinnati, Ohio, 29–30 Civil Air Defense Patrol, 5, 55, 121 civil defense

apathy toward, 54, 87–93, 173 debate over evacuation, 122–4 exercises
see under individual names
failure of, 7–8, 57, 87, 92–3, 137–8,

141–2

gender roles and, 53–4, 8
0
lack of realism in planning, 8, 24
,

117–21, 129–30, 137, 142 military’s views of, 22, 170–1 in Montgomery County, Md., 93,

119–20, 128–9, 139–42, 173,

178, 184 need for after Soviet atomic test, 35–6 in northern Virginia, 120–2, 128,

154, 184–5, 175, 180 overview of, 5 place of in national security state, 56,

92–3, 131 post-World War II planning for, 21–4 in Prince Georges County, Md., 48,

119–20, 122, 178, 180 shift from evacuation to shelters, 135–7 states and cities seek guidance for,

55–6, 93, 138, 141–2, 171

struggle to keep pace with weapons’ improvements, 6, 10, 22, 98–9, 119–20, 122–3, 135, 142, 173

in Washington, D.C.
see
D.C. Office

of Civil Defense during World War II, 12–16
see also
fallout shelters; Federal Civil

Defense Administration;
see

under
Congress
Clay, Lucius, 1, 25 Coast and Geodetic Survey, 109,

196 n.16 Cold War, origins of, 18–19 Columbia, Md., 6, 147, 185 Commerce Department, 109, 129, 155 communism, 18–20, 29, 137, 145, 174

see also
Soviet Union Conelrad, 112–15, 151, 154–6 Congress

on 9/11, 186–7 civil defense in Capitol buildings and, 117–18, 172, 184 continuity of, 6–7, 31, 35, 127, 160, 162, 167–8, 177 creation of D.C. Office of Civil

Defense, 45–7, 4
9
creation of FCDA, 5
6
criticisms of Office of Civilia
n

Defense, 13–14 during Cuban Missile Crisis, 175, 180–1 failure to participate in exercises, 121, 129, 156

fallout shelters and, 137, 171–3 governance of Washington, D.C., 3, 45 hostility toward dispersal, 4, 50–1, 60–3, 100, 144, 147 reduction of budget of D.C. Office of

Civil Defense, 77, 86–7, 93, 135 reduction of budget of FCDA, 57, 92 reduction of budget for Federal

Relocation Arc, 164, 166 relocation site of, 7, 129, 167–8, 180, 185 view of civil defense as state and local responsibility, 120

Constitution, The Article I, Section 2, 167–8, 189 protection of, 158

Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD)
see under
Air Force

continuity of government after 9/11, 186–9 defined, 2, 4 as deterrent, 98 difficulties of, 105, 109, 150 emphasis on executive branch, 7, 165–8 of executive departments and

agencies,
see under individual names

of judicial branch, 7, 168, 177–8 of legislative branch
see under
Congress overview of, 5–6 planning of, 30–32, 42, 99–100, 106,

131 of president, 75, 107, 126, 166–7,

169–70, 183–
4
recommendations for, 187–
9
revelations about, 18
5
tests of
see
Operation Readiness
;

Operation Alert

see also
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
,
involvement in continuit
y
plannin
g

Continuity of Government

Commission, 187, 189 Corning, Hobart, 138, 146 Council of National Defense (CND),

12–13 Crisis Relocation Planning (CRP)
see

under
Defense Department Cuban Missile Crisis, 173–9, 181, 183 Culpeper, Va., 38, 183 Cutler, Robert, 98, 105–6, 124, 160

decentralization, 24–5, 31, 50, 59, 61–3, 101 Declaration of Independence protection of, 158 Defense Department authorization to use nuclear weapons,

156, 170 civil defense and, 123, 131, 170–1 continuity of, 63–4, 66–8, 177 creation of, 19–20 Crisis Relocation Planning of, 184–5 evacuation plans of, 64, 67, 132–4

see also
Joint Emergency Evacuation Plan Office of the Secretary of Defense,

63, 67, 132–33, 158, 166 opposition to dispersal, 38, 100, 143 participation in exercises, 124–5, 129,

158 proposed dispersal of, 31, 37–8, 42, 143

relocation sites of, 63–8, 155, 166
see also
Fort Ritchie, Md.; Raven Rock Mountain; Site R

Dennison, Robert, 69, 71, 73, 75

Departmental Auditorium, 77, 90, 175

Detroit, Mich., 28–9, 60

dispersal antecedents of, 28 Congressional hostility toward, 4, 50–1, 60–3, 100, 144, 147 defined, 4–6 described, 27–8 effects of hydrogen weapons on planning of, 100–1, 143, 147 Eisenhower administration plans for, 101, 142–3 plans for metropolitan Washington, D.C., 30, 33–5, 37–43 Project East River proposals for, 100 Truman administration plans for, 49–52, 59–63
see also
Augur, Tracy; decentralization
see under
Atomic Energy Commission; Central Intelligence Agency; Defense Department; National Bureau of Standards

Distant Early Warning Line (DEW), 10, 111, 114, 155, 218 n.1

District of Columbia
see
Washington,

D.C.

District of Columbia Emergency Management Agency (DEMA), 187–9

District of Columbia Office of Civil

Defense (DCD) in Alert America, 79, 81 budget of, 49, 53, 77, 86, 93, 135 changed mission, 184–5 civil defense classes of, 81, 138, 172 creation of, 48–9 Cuban Missile Crisis and, 175, 178 FCDA and, 57, 89, 131, 135, 138 ground observer posts and, 84, 138–9 Lorton, Va., command center, 178,

185 participation in exercises, 116–17,

119, 130, 156–7 plans of, 57, 117, 122 problems with Congress, 87, 93, 135,

172 racial divisions and, 54, 84 recruitment of volunteers, 52–4, 79,

81, 89, 117, 184 responsibility for attack warning, 7–8, 112–13, 124, 150, 154–5

support for continuity of federal government, 7, 96, 115, 121, 123–4, 181

see also
Fondahl, John
see unde
r
Congres
s

District of Columbia Survival Plan
, 5, 132, 172, 188
see also
Washington
Area Survival Plan committee

Dondero, George, 50, 60 Drew, Dr. Charles, 14–15 Dulles, Allen, 103–5, 133 Dulles, John Foster, 127, 169

Eberstadt, Ferdinand, 19–20 Edwards, Allan, 151, 154 Eisenhower, Dwight D.

attitude toward civil defense, 98–9,

119, 137, 15
5
background of, 9
7
creation of National Emergenc
y

Agencies, 160–1, 229 n.36 heart attack of, 131 insistence on tests, 98, 109, 121, 155 involvement in continuity planning,

5–7, 97–8, 105–6, 124, 126, 131–2, 150–1, 155–6, 158–64, 166–7, 188

New Look of, 7, 9
8
opposition to national shelte
r

program, 136–7 participation in tests, 108, 125, 161–2 support for decentralization, 101 support for desegregation of

Washington, D.C., 3, 145 support for dispersal, 98, 101, 103, 143–4 transition meeting with John Kennedy, 169–70 views on martial law, 127, 161–2,

180–2 Ellis, Frank, 170–1 Emergency Action Papers (EAPs)

assembled, 98, 156, 159–60, 162–3,

167 in Cuban Missile Crisis, 176, 180, 182 purposes of, 6 shown to John Kennedy, 170

Fairfax County, Va., 34, 66, 91, 102–3, 105, 128, 145, 147, 151, 195 n.5 fallout, 6, 9, 101–2, 118, 122, 129, 154, 159–61, 165, 180 fallout shelters, 132, 134, 136–7, 170–3,

175, 184, 224 n.24, 236 n.5 Falls Church, Va., 145, 151 Farquhar, Arthur, 93, 139 Federal Buildings Services
see
General

Services Administration, warden corps of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),

77, 96, 133, 155, 161, 196 n.16 Federal City Council, 104 Federal Civil Defense Administration

(FCDA) Alert America campaign of, 77–81,

84, 86, 90, 119, 137, 17
5
budget problems of, 57, 92–
3
creation of, 56–
7
criticized, 135, 13
8

D.C.
Office of Civil Defense and, 57,

89, 131, 13
5
fallout shelter standards, 171–
2
merged with Office of Defens
e