Garrett Graff: RavenRock - Govt's Gone Self-Survival Mode

[grarpamp]

https://www.garrettgraff.com/

RAVEN ROCK

The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself–While
the Rest of Us Die

A fresh window on American history: The eye-opening truth about the
government’s secret plans to survive a catastrophic attack on US
soil—even if the rest of us die—a roadmap that spans from the dawn of
the nuclear age to today.

Every day in Washington, DC, the blue-and-gold 1st Helicopter
Squadron, codenamed “MUSSEL,” flies over the Potomac River. As obvious
as the Presidential motorcade, most people assume the squadron is a
travel perk for VIPs. They’re only half right: while the helicopters
do provide transport, the unit exists to evacuate high-ranking
officials in the event of a terrorist or nuclear attack on the
capital. In the event of an attack, select officials would be whisked
by helicopters to a ring of secret bunkers around Washington, even as
ordinary citizens were left to fend for themselves.

For sixty years, the US government has been developing secret Doomsday
plans to protect itself, and the multibillion-dollar Continuity of
Government (COG) program takes numerous forms—from its plans to
evacuate the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to the plans to launch
nuclear missiles from a Boeing-747 jet flying high over Nebraska. In
Raven Rock, Garrett M. Graff sheds light on the inner workings of the
650-acre compound (called Raven Rock) just miles from Camp David, as
well as dozens of other bunkers the government built its top leaders
during the Cold War, from the White House lawn to Cheyenne Mountain in
Colorado to Palm Beach, Florida, and the secret plans that would have
kicked in after a Cold War nuclear attack to round up foreigners and
dissidents and nationalize industries. Equal parts a presidential,
military, and cultural history, Raven Rock tracks the evolution of the
government plan and the threats of global war from the dawn of the
nuclear era through the War on Terror.