Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die, by Garrett M. Graff, is a revealing history of the attempts by the US government to insure the continuity of government (COG) since the dawn of the Cold War, and with renewed and slightly shifted vigor after 911.
The title is telling. At the beginning of the Cold War, there were plans in place to save large population centers through evacuations. But as nuclear weapons grew in size and strength, these efforts were largely abandoned. The government, particularly the Executive Branch, was widely acknowledged to be the only entity that could possibly survive a nuclear exchange with the USSR and govern what was left of the country.
Graff’s book is detailed, knowledgeable, and for those of us who lived during the Cold War, frightening in the sense of how close we came to nuclear war through accidents, computer malfunctions, and faculty communications. At times only luck saved us from Armageddon.
The title is telling. At the beginning of the Cold War, there were plans in place to save large population centers through evacuations. But as nuclear weapons grew in size and strength, these efforts were largely abandoned. The government, particularly the Executive Branch, was widely acknowledged to be the only entity that could possibly survive a nuclear exchange with the USSR and govern what was left of the country.
Graff’s book is detailed, knowledgeable, and for those of us who lived during the Cold War, frightening in the sense of how close we came to nuclear war through accidents, computer malfunctions, and faculty communications. At times only luck saved us from Armageddon.
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