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

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, Military Fiction, American History, War

529 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2017

About the author

Garrett M. Graff, a distinguished magazine journalist and historian, has spent more than a dozen years covering politics, technology, and national security. He’s written for publications from WIRED to Bloomberg BusinessWeek to the New York Times, and served as the editor of two of Washington’s most prestigious magazines, Washingtonian and POLITICO Magazine, which he helped lead to its first National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor.

Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."

His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s not the end of the world at all…It’s only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan’t be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.”
- Nevil Shute, On the Beach

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency, you must start with this one thing: the very definition of ‘emergency’ is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.”
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech to the National Defense Executive Reserve Conference (1957)


Let me tell you something about myself, something I normally don’t share till the third beer or the second date: I’ve always been interested in how nations and individuals planned for nuclear war. Now, before you call me a psycho, let me be very clear. I’m not actually rooting for a nuclear war. That would be psychotic. I’m just fascinated – and terrified – by the various hypotheticals. That just makes me…well, it makes me something less than a psychopath, at least.

This interest has manifested itself in various ways. I’ve read a lot about the Cold War, though serious histories typically dance around the subject of Armageddon, even though it’s the whole reason the Cold War existed in the first place. I bought a used copy of Herman Kahn’s On Thermonuclear War, and it sits uncomfortably on my bookshelf, an odd conversation starter of sorts. I’ve also searched online for old Civil Defense manuals and instructions, just to get a flavor of what it might take to build my own backyard bombproof. And if I see a Fallout Shelter sign, you can be sure I’m going exploring, though I have yet to find any leftover emergency wheat crackers (or much evidence that these shelters would have done much more than delay our inevitable radiation-induced mutation into post-apocalyptic monsters).

Despite all my digging, I’ve been vaguely frustrated about what I’ve learned, and more so about what I have not.

Well, my search is over.

Garrett Graf’s Raven Rock is exactly what I’ve been looking for. It is a well-researched and rollicking tour through the architecture of the Cold War. It provides a serious overview of America’s post-apocalyptic planning, a dark subject that is nevertheless bleakly entertaining. This could pass for farce if it wasn’t true. For instance, the “Emer-zak” system in Washington, D.C., was civil defense as imagined by Kubrick. At the push of a button, Emer-zak would have broadcast alert messages through any Muzak system.

Raven Rock contains a great deal of information, and Graf attempts to corral it all by structuring his book in semi-chronological fashion. He goes administration by administration, starting with President Truman, the first Chief Executive of the Nuclear Age, and ending with President George W. Bush at the dawn of the War on Terror. With each president, Graf describes how nuclear war planning changed and progressed to meet new challenges, such as shrinking warning times (as bombers gave way to intercontinental ballistic missiles) and the growing power of bombs (as we went from atomic bombs measured in kilotons, to megaton thermonuclear weapons).

The title of the book comes from the Raven Rock Mountain Complex buried in Pennsylvania. Construction started in 1951, and it gained a reputation as the purported “underground Pentagon.” You will not be surprised that Graf spends a lot of time on Raven Rock, and other secret underground shelters meant to house various arms of the Government. These bunkers include famous (and quite un-secret) locations such as NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain, in Colorado, and the now-defunct Greenbrier hideaway designed to house Congress, and built to blend into a posh West Virginia hotel. Graf also devotes time to lesser known sites, such as the repurposed Quonset hut buried near JFK’s Florida retreat.

Graf is not interested merely in naming bunkers and telling you how deep they are, or how they were built on springs, or how the huge blast doors were such marvels they could be closed by a single person. He also gives you the broader evolution of American contingency planning during the Cold War. This includes the evolution of Air Force One from a random prop plane given a homey nickname by each successive president, to the modern jet that – if necessary – can make such a quick takeoff that it appears to be moving vertically.

Graf further devotes a good deal of space to what I’ll call America’s modified “dead hand” system. In technical terms, the dead hand refers to autonomous command and control systems that could launch a retaliatory nuclear strike even if human capabilities had been eliminated. America did not implement anything like that, or at least it’s not mentioned here (the Soviets apparently did, and you can read about it in David Hoffman’s The Dead Hand). Instead, the U.S. was obsessed with maintaining redundancies to insure against a decapitating first strike. To that end, SAC flew endless patrols in the “Looking Glass” planes, staying constantly airborne for decade after decade. The U.S. also developed waterborne options, known as the National Emergency Command Post Afloat. Graf also describes the chilling Emergency Rocket Communications System stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base. If the U.S. was subjected to a storm of nuclear missiles and bombs, the ERCS would launch its own ballistic missile into low space. Instead of carrying a warhead, the missile carried a UHF repeated to deliver Emergency Action Messages to our remaining forces. It’s absolutely amazing to think how much expertise went into perfecting an act of pure, cold vengeance. You’ve blown us all to hell, Commie. But you’re going to burn with us!

The subtitle of Raven Rock is quite villainous: “The Story of the U.S. Government’s Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die.” (Cue evil laugh). I suppose it is worth at least a moment to meditate on the ethics of a democracy spending massive resources to protect governmental leaders while they played high stakes nuclear poker with other nations. Still, it is a bit of an oversimplification to say that America didn’t do anything to protect its citizens. They did some things, just not a lot (especially in comparison to the USSR).

In the early days of the Cold War, the Government generally believed a nuclear war was survivable (which might have been the case, as long as you shot down enough Soviet bombers). As destructive tonnage grew, however, and the world was introduced to multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, any talk of survivability became little more than propaganda. Of course, there is a cheap thrill to be gained by looking at some of the wackier ideas that sprang from the panic of Sputnik and mushroom clouds. Underground cities, for example, were much discussed.

In the end, the U.S. went with an underfunded Civil Defense plan that involved a mixture of public and private fallout shelters. Even had the project been fully funded, I wouldn’t have been overly reassured. For example, the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization (or the OCDM, one of hundreds of acronyms in this acronym-mad book) provided helpful hints to stretch the shelter’s supply of wheat crackers. The hint was to serve six 125-calorie meals a day, which would keep you fed, and plus, break up the monotony of the day! I don’t know about you, but if that’s the option, I’ll take the clap-bang of a thermonuclear wallop instead.

If there is a theme to Raven Rock, it is “continuity of government.” The phrase is repeated many, many times, as the Government worked to perfect a system for establishing a line of succession that would survive a catastrophic war. (This includes a chapter on the now-iconic “designated survivor”).

Graf’s focus on this aspect frankly gets exhausting. (Honestly, unless you are really into this subject, I can see how you might find much of this exhausting). However, he ultimately uses it to show what happens to the “best laid plans of mice and men”, etc., etc. During his damning chapter on September 11, 2001, Graf shows how 19 men with box cutters were able to disrupt a continuity plan that was designed to survive a full scale nuclear attack. The failures that day – with important governmental officers incommunicado – really demonstrate, in a graphic way, the importance of continuity plans. We know in hindsight that the 9/11 attacks only had one wave. But what if there had been more? What happens when the next terror attack comes from a shipboard nuke out on the Potomac? Judging by the chaos on 9/11, the answers aren’t heartening.

Planning and preparation is never a bad thing. I was an Eagle Scout, so being prepared is something I fully support. Still, many of the fallbacks that Graf discusses seem exasperatingly laughable. No matter how deep you build your bunker (unless we’re talking the 3,500 foot Deep Underground Command Center, which never got off the drawing board), they seem quite pervious to destruction. No matter how much concrete, rebar, and granite, a well-targeted missile can still get through and blow your expensive bunker to smithereens.

This is a book filled with facts and figures and technical wonder. It is not a tome filled with moral ponderings or philosophizing. As I finished, though, I couldn’t help but think what all this underground infrastructure had meant. Billions of dollars and millions of man hours were spent burrowing and hardening and preparing for a cataclysmic war. What good could those resources have done above ground, preparing for something else?

Of course, the builders of those bunkers, and the people who’ll fill them will say it’s all necessary. To repurpose Tacitus: We have built an underground empire, and called it peace.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 2017 Simon & Schuster publication.

This is a very interesting accounting of how the United States began, during the cold war era, to take intense precautions against the possibility of a nuclear war, that would preserve the presidency, even in the wake of massive destruction.

The measures were put in place, not to save any one president, in particular, from death, but to preserve the country’s government, so that the line of power would continue.

However, it would appear, that in times of clear danger, some leaders have refused to be sent to bunkers, instead choosing to stay in the Oval office. Still, precautions are in place, and are carried out, for example, during an inauguration, or in the event of an attack, like 9/11.

This all came about, after the atom bomb was dropped and our leaders saw the damage that a nuclear attack would inflict, in one felled swoop, so to speak, and the fear that generated during the cold war.

From there the United States became nearly obsessed with saving those in power, with a distinct pecking order, even choosing which historical documents and monuments to save, and it was interesting which ones they gave top priority.

The author takes us back to the beginnings of this cold war mindset and walks us through the history and various presidencies, through near misses, to technological pros and cons, showing where we are lacking in that area, all the way up to our present -day preparing for an Armageddon type attack and its fallout.

What would our government really be like post- nuclear attack? Certainly, it would not resemble anything like what it is right now. Yet, we the people, apparently have no say in how these events would unfold.

Although, it should come as no shock, even to the most naïve person, that the government has a plan in place, and it’s not really a big secret that there are bunkers, where leaders are to be sent if an attack of that magnitude occurred. But, it is rather surprising how they plan to utilize those plans for their own survival, how they chose what to keep and what to risk, or who, for that matter. Believe it or not, immediate family might not get to enjoy total safety.

But, really, for the most part this is a historical and political accounting of how the cold war affected our mentality, which led to, instead of less nuclear power, an over -abundance of nuclear warheads, how it shaped our culture, and how that cloud still hangs over us in the way our government respond to threats.

This is an eye- opening book, interesting and informative, very detailed and well-researched. It can be a dry reading at times, though, and it did take me a little while to read this one.

I don’t know if our government, if it did have to respond to such a catastrophic event really could pull off their ‘doomsday’ strategy. There are just too many unknowns to be sure, but it would most likely depend on who was in charge at the time and how they chose to respond. I just hope we never have to find out.

At the end of the day, though, I suppose if I want to survive a nuclear attack, I better start looking into bomb shelters, because the government intends to cover themselves, and maybe certain corporations, but from there it’s every man for themselves.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is crazy. I keep trying to explain it to people, and failing to. Basically, this is the secret history of the US government's preparations for the apocalypse, starting with World War II, extending into the Cold War, boosted once more by 9/11, and then continuing to the current day.

The most obvious thing this book does is survey all the secret hardened underground facilities where the govt plans to weather the end of the world. There are a lot of them and they are big. That alone is pretty fascinating. But even more compelling are the secret plans that surrounded them. Plans on how to respond in the event of a nuclear exchange. Plans for who should respond in such an event. Plans to make sure that the 'constutional government' survives in case of a catastrophe that wipes out congress and the president.

The govt has long been kind of obsessed with making sure that, in the event of World War III, there is still someone who can call themselves 'president' and push the big red button. There are elaborate chains of secession in place not only for POTUS but for every major cabinet and department. There are also evacuation procedures for everybody, most of dubious practicality.

Despite decades and decades of preparation, none of this stuff was ever activated during the Cold War. It wasn't until 9/11 that somebody activated the "Continuity of Governent" contingency plans. And those plans... didn't go smoothly. It turns out that evacuating the government and making sure the government stays in control of the situation are mutually exclusive scenarios. The result on that terrible day was mostly disinformation and chaos in Washington DC.

The really crazy thing here is the very idea that, in a full-scale nuclear exchange with an enemy such as the Cold War-era USSR, that it would be somehow useful or essential to save the 'constitutional' heads of the US government. In such an event, most of the population of the USA would be wiped out overnight. The nuclear winter that resulted might ultimately doom the rest of the human race too. But at least we'd still have a guy calling himself the Secretary of State in an underground bunker!

Ironically, virtually all the planning for these doomsday scenarios assumes that the president will declare martial law and suspend basic constitutional rights. So even if the 'Constitutional Government' was preserved, it wouldn't be very... constitutional.

At any rate, this book is fascinating. It pulls back the curtains to reveal a decades-long attempt costing hundreds of billions of dollars to save something that could be called 'America' in the face of the apocalypse. Those efforts were often both ridiculous and breathtaking in their scope and ambition. Every page of this book held some interesting or weird fact.

This book is not just for military history enthusiasts. It's accessible and compelling. You should read it.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cynical subtitle is unfortunate. I am enthused by the idea of institutional memory, how ideas yet prioritized, protected, pass down. This book is that in action. It's bureaucrats trying their best, it seems, to see past their daily duties and plan for the worst. Only if one expects, the government to be able to protect 300 million people at once in the event of a catastrophe are the contents of the book a letdown.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brother recommended this book to me as a source to help me understand the work that he does better. Otherwise, I would have been turned off from reading it by the title. From the title, I would have thought this was a kind of anti-government expose of their secret plans and conspiracies. There certainly are secret plans, but the book has a very straightforward factual tone. It is a very interesting history of the Continuity of Government (COG) plans that grew out of the atomic weapons age and the need to have constant track of decision makers and their backups in case of something like a nuclear attack in which we would have only minutes to decide what to do.

Even reading about some of the computer glitches that occurred at NORAD in the 1970s and how close they came to accidentally initiating a nuclear war is chilling even decades after the fact. The movie Wargames with Matthew Broderick was actually much closer to reality than I ever suspected (minus the semi-sentient computer system) This book tells how much that movie affected Ronald Reagan as president with its depressing, but very accurate final assessment of nuclear war, "The only winning move is not to play."

The book gives some detail on the billions of dollars that continue to be spent on COG through the presidencies of Clinton, Bush, and Obama although the threat of large nuclear attack has not really been a concern for the general public since the early 1990s. It really makes me wonder if it's really all necessary. I understand more the preparations for how to ensure the continuation of constitutional government if there is a real fear of a massive nuclear strike that takes out all major U.S cities and military targets. But is that even a real scenario any more? Perhaps those with more knowledge of the world think it is.

[Rachel Blakeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a concept this is a 5 star book. The execution is barely 3 stars. There are lots of interesting facts but it kind of drags on in too many sections to count. It needed an ongoing, strong narrative to pull the reader through. Instead it was essentially a list of what the author found in his research, organized mostly chronologically. It would have been really nice to have a glossary of all the programs and acronyms because I couldn't keep them straight after reading this book over two weeks. Editors, please add that for the paperback.

In sum an interesting concept that had the wrong author to write it.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Compelling and Fascinating Read

This book is the single-best account of the development of the US Government's continuity of government plans that I've ever read. It is comprehensively-researched and energetically written. It presents the material in a compelling fashion, without becoming dull or overly-academic in tone.

[Greg Strandberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read through the first 50 pages of this book and then skimmed a bit in the back chapters. I wasn't that impressed with the book, both because it was a bit dry and it started a bit further back in history. For me, a bunch of the Cold War stuff was boring. I think the later chapters that give you some financial numbers for closer to our own time are better.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonably interesting look at the cold war-era "bunker" plans. I think it's kinda funny how self-important the government is that they go to such great lengths to make these convoluted plans with such great secrecy. The example of 9-11 where everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off really underscores how the government is not some sort of all-powerful collection of brilliant people, mostly it's just a bunch of self-important windbags who spend billions of dollars on fairly ineffective protective measures. That said, in that case I think 9-11 was analogous to when a normally tropical region gets some snow - a quarter inch of snow on the roads in Houston and the transportation system basically shuts down, even though it's not really all that dangerous in itself; same thing with terrorism in America.

I think you'll like this book if you like thinking about cold war nuclear strategy and survivalism (since this was mostly just taxpayer-funded survivalism).

[Craigtator · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating, horrifying, hilarious story buried under a blizzard of minutiae and acronyms. Not every piece of research needs to go into the book.

[Rick Lee Lee James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read. The section on 9/11 alone is worth the price.

[Tena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won an ARC in a GOODREADS giveaway -- 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 -- pretty intense stuff to toss at me. It was very informative and will include documentation of where the research was from. A good read. *** side note: since my copy was an advanced & uncorrected proof; ALL of the end reference material pages were either not numbered/sorted {all 000s /non-alphabetized} or left blank to include in the final prints... I am soooo going to give this to my conspiracy theory buddy: he will go hysterical! ***

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Badly in need of an editor. Some sections devolve into lists of names and numbers, which does little to illustrate any point the author may wish to make. And it's a minor thing, but the author provides an obviously incorrect date for the arrest of Soviet/Russia spy Robert Hanssen, and with one such obvious mistake, it makes me wonder how many others there might be which are less obvious.

[Xavier Patiño · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Garret M. Graff’s excellently researched Watergate: A New History was my introduction to his work and I thoroughly enjoyed it. For most people, the Watergate Scandal sounds like it would make for a dry read but no – Graff is a gifted writer, and it was quite a page turner. Raven Rock was no different (I listened to the audiobook but the result was the same – greatly held my attention!)

Like the book’s subtitle says, the U.S. government has a slew of hidden bunkers around the country, along with specialized planes and buildings hidden in plain sight to help ensure government continuity while the rest of the population is left to their own devices. Raven Rock is one of those bunkers hidden in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

The chapter on 9/11 was my favorite. It was a chaotic day – officials that were supposed to report to a secure location didn’t show, phone lines were overloaded, and the internet lagged and crawled under the weight of the uptick of people searching desperately for info. Not just the government but the whole country was in disarray.

Let us hope that such a war will never unfold. If it were, how would humanity come back from such a disaster? The aftereffects of nuclear winter would make going outside impossible. Is It even worth attempting to continue a government?

[Mark Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, but disturbing book that covers the government's plans to continue their mission in the event of a nuclear war.

What did we find out on 9/11? The plans didn't work.

Will the new, improved plans overcome the shortcomings? Well, they're classified, so we may never find out.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thematically interesting, but executed with the excitement of a textbook, and strewn with redundant uses of the author's favorite buzzwords like 'war matériel' and 'opening salvo of a nuclear war'.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The scale of America's shadow government during the Cold War, its innumerable building and systems meant to survive a nuclear attack, would be almost incredible if it were not convincingly conveyed in this well-researched book.

Much of the book deals with the largest complexes the federal government set up to survive the nuclear holocaust. In the 1950s, Mount Weather, in western Virginia, a former weather testing site and then mine experiment station, became the home of much of the bureaucracy, while Raven Rock, or Site R, North of Camp David, just over the Pennsylvania border, would become the home of the President and the military command. In 1962 the Greenbrier in West Virginia became the apocalyptic home for Congress, and soon after Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado housed the NORAD air command (the latter was actually public because it was under thousands of feet of granite and featured rooms on springs so the structures inside could survive several multi-megaton direct hits.) But there were numerous others places, like the faltering attempt for the Supreme Court to lease a hotel in North Carolina with access to a local law library, the Federal Reserve relocation facility in Warrenton, Virginia, the bunker directly under the White House FDR started but that Truman expanded during the renovations of the late 1940s (the latter was supposed to be the main presidential bunker, with a special unit set up outside DC to dig the President out, until people realized that numerous direct hits would make the location unsurvivable.)

But it wasn't just federal bunkers. By 1962 five states had their own protected command structures, and the states soon maxed out a federal matching grant to dig more. Many cities like Portland started digging too. Throughout all levels of government people ran simulations and drills practicing for the end. Starting in 1955 President Eisenhower ran an annual "Operation ALERT" where much of the government closed down and was evacuated to test procedures. Portland shut down the whole city one year to plan an alert and evacuation. In 1961 the entire American airspace was closed off for the SKY SHIELD II exercise, where US bombers tried to "attack" the US and were "fought" by US aircraft (most bombers made it through.) Every type of government bureaucracy kept updated lists of all their employees, often in order of importance, explaining who would or would not survive an attack. The National Gallery of Art and National Archives had to rank their pieces in terms of necessity of survival.

There were redundancies atop redundancies. Western Union in 1962 finished a nationwide immediate detection system that would transmit a sharp signal of any nuclear blast. Besides the bunkers for the President, there were the "National Emergency Command Post Afloats (NECPAs), two ships that trailed the President. When the military realized that H-Bombs could destroy those they set up in the 1960s National Emergency Airborne Command Posts (NEACPs) or planes that trailed the President and were set up (unlike Air Force One) to survive and provide a command post for a nuclear attack. The Strategic Air Command set up a permanent LOOKING GLASS plane post in the air to make sure its command could survive and send back orders to. They made sure there was never a break in the chain and one or another stayed airborne nonstop for 30 years after 1962. Overall, the bureaucracy was obsessed with ensuring "Continuity of Government" COG, or survival of the top commands at any cost.

The book spends too much time on the COG operations in the 21st century, but they are a helpful reminder that all of this paranoia is not just past. The Pentagon has 75 employees spending $300 million a year working on ensuring operations after a disaster. The fact that the Government Printing Office has three planned relocation sites and is ready to put out an "Emergency Federal Register" to ensure what it calls "the rule of law and a constitutional form of government," seems hollow when the job of such a publication would be to publish unitary presidential orders based on Presidential Directive 51 from 2007, most of which is classified. These facts, and the book as a whole, are a healthy reminder that our government is still preparing to survive an unimaginable disaster, and rule after one.

[Vannetta Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had probably heard of secret government bunkers before reading this book, but I had no idea the scope and breadth the US Government has gone to in order to ensure Continuity of Government (COG).

This book was at times fascinating, boring, horrifying, and even funny in a few spots. There's a lot of information here as Graff starts post WWII, when real COG planning began and ends with the Obama administration. I would love for the author to write an addendum addressing procedures and policies for COG during the pandemic. How did that work? I know the postal service wasn't delivering vaccines house-to-house which is what was planned before there was a pandemic.

If you're interested in behind-the-scenes, factual stories that are a bit hard to believe, this is it. My respect only grows for Garrett Graff with each book of his I read. Talk about a lot of research!

[MJ Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised by this book - I certainly wouldn’t pick it up myself if it wasn’t for my book club.
I thought the writing was beautiful - it was well written and researched I felt like I was reading a story version of a dissertation.
The timeline that the story is woven through was fascinating - it was a little slow in parts for me but I enjoyed seeing how priorities shifted with various presidents and the various threats to the United States.
And lastly, the integration of emergency management as the establishment of FEMA and discussions of COOP and COG is what kept me going.

[Aaron Esthelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Government bad

[J. Scott Frampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the best book I have read on the idea of nuclear war, and how a nation guards and protects itself from destruction. Well researched and presented. A hallmark of the Cold War explanation, and how we arrived at the place we currently stand. Excellent!

[George Siehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very disquieting read that makes us understand just how complicated life in these United States can be. Granted, a matrix that includes fighting nuclear wars, presidential succession, technology, and political process (just for starters) is bound to be complex. Graff unites these varied topics quite legitimately via the concept of Continuity of Governance, the idea of maintaining a functioning government if events such as nuclear war, a major terrorism event, or even a severe natural disaster eliminate a significant portion of the elected leaders. For instance, a terrorist nuclear detonation during a Presidential inaugural or State of the Union address could wipe out many members of the presidential, legislative, judicial, and military structure. One observer noted that, "an attack that kills all but 9 members of Congress...Five of those nine would constitute a quorum" that could enact legislation in the House. If both the president and vice-president were killed, that group of five could elect a new Speaker who would "become President for the remainder of the term." The author presents a number of equally numbing possibilities for chaos.

Graff's symbol for this whole cauldron of confusion, Raven Rock, is a mountaintop underground facility in Pennsylvania, close to Camp David in Maryland. It serves as a secure alternate command center for the Pentagon, along with scores of similar shelters across the country. Mount Weather, west of Dulles airport is another major relocation center for Washington leaders in the event of a need to evacuate the city. The whole chain of events and actions described in this book date to the Presidency of Harry Truman and the birth of the nuclear age. Graff describes in GREAT detail the efforts of succeeding administrations to try to ensure continuity of constitutional governance in a nuclear or other devastating situation.

Much of what these administrations have planned is secret, highly classified, and with details unknown to some who would implement the plans ( as in, "You may now open the envelope.") Some are to relocate from Washington to new work places, but their families cannot accompany them. This includes members of Congress who were once slated to go to the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, and the Supreme Court who were to go to Asheville, North Carolina. Chief Justice Warren said he would not go without his wife. Others expressed the same reservations about leaving their family behind. Working members of Federal agencies, not just political elites, would be among those transferred to remote sites to continue their work.

Graff describes the problems and confusion that occurred during President Eisenhower's hospitalizations, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Reagan shooting, and 9/11. Each ran off script, but
provided the basis for further refinements in the emergency plans. One of the continuing problems was with communications. Finding out were people were, and then contacting them was difficult. Many millions of dollars have been spent trying to eliminate this shortcoming.

Graff ably covers many topics for General Curtis LeMay's Strategic Air Command and Cheyenne Mountain, to Former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myer learning, long after the fact, that George Stephanopoulos had been given a card authorizing his evacuation to a safe location, and that she had not. She had been advising the director of West Wing, who had included such a card in an episode of the show, telling him that no such card existed.

Some may complain that the book is too detailed, because details abound. The structure is chronological, but certainly not linear. The story moves about and circles back to make connections. It is highly readable, well researched, and includes many interesting photos. What it lacks is a glossary to track the dozens of acronyms, many of which seem to steal letters from one another so as to look alike.

Full disclosure: much as I enjoyed the book, it was personally disturbing. I moved away from the Washington, D.C. area, with its horrid traffic and always present risk of nuclear attack,
to the woodlands, orchards and dairy farms of southern Pennsylvania. Author Graff informs me that Site R, Raven Rock, 25 minutes from my house, is a most likely target in a nuclear war. Grumble, grumble. Still, I recommend this comprehensive survey of a most complex subject.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graff describes the subterranean bunkers designed to ensure continuity of the U.S. government in case of nuclear, or other, attacks. It's very scary to think about, because he explains it so well.

[Jim Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I AM IN AWE. First in the research Garrett Graff did on this book, unbelievable. Secondly, I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and entered the U. S. Coast Guard in 1965 and stayed on active duty until 1985 and frankly, I was 99% unaware of any of the material covered in this book. Raven Rock is a history book that takes the reader BEHIND THE HISTORY WE WERE TAUGHT AND TOLD and reads like a science fiction novel. Graff writes about school children participating in Nuclear Attack Drills; I remember those. We were told to take cover beneath our desks as if that would actually make any difference.

As I read the book, I had a recurring question in my thinking, “Okay smart A…., what would you do if YOU were the President of the United States and a foreign government launched a Nuclear Attack on the USA?”

One question and answer leads to another question and answer to another, etc. The book is so compelling to read and the subject matter so complex to fully understand. We have seen the devastation created by a hurricane upon our shores and that would pale in comparison to a Nuclear Attack on one or more of our cities.

The book is all about what our government will do if that should occur to maintain a government in spite of the damage and deaths of so many of our government officials. More importantly it is about what our government has done until now and what it has done is very scary stuff – the stuff science fiction movies are made of. It was difficult for me to keep track of the billions upon billions of dollars spent in creating evacuation sites, maintaining them and then upgrading them in addition to the constant upgrading of airplanes and communication/computer equipment.

There were so many revelations, at least to me. For example, I was always taught that the Vice President would naturally assume the duties of the President in the case of his/her death. But as you read about what has happened in our history you discover that no such ascendancy existed in the Constitution until the 25th Amendment which was not ratified and signed until February 10, 1967. Until that time Presidents would sign a letter to the Vice President authorizing the ascendancy but the legality of that document has never been tested.

Raven Rock gives the reader an inside look at how our government operated or didn’t operate during times of crisis like the Cuban Missile Crisis and 9/11 and more. Do I recommend this book? ABSOUTELY. Who should read it? Anyone over the age of 14 who wants to better understand the Constitution and the inner workings of our government. Would I buy it as a gift? Absolutely!

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enlightening and disturbing book on many levels. I came to learn a great deal about how the government planned to survive in the event of all out nuclear war. There were many iterations and variations on what would happen, where people would go, who would be priority to save...and who wasn't. Yet, with all the plans and money, it was also apparent that these plans may not have survived first contact with reality. They weren't practiced much, as a major aspect of the plans were to keep them secret from our adversaries...but we deceived ourselves as much as the enemy. In trying to put together what ifs and contingency plans, there were so many questions that were, and still are unanswered about who would take over, and how our government would function.

This book covers a great deal of material from the Start of the Cold War until 9/11. Granted, the more recent government contingency plans are harder to come by, so the bulk of the material is from pre-9/11. While most of these plans assumed a nuclear strike with some degree of warning (rising hostilities), as time moved on, the plans had to account for smaller and smaller timelines. 9/11 really caught the government off-guard, as the facilities designed to keep the government running took a long time to get up and running. We got lucky. If something like that happens, only the Capitol or the White House get obliterated, how does the government manage? The book doesn't exactly offer a hopeful vision. Still, it is a good read of history, from the facilities to all the crazy ways that the US government thought to save the government. Worth the time.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can't be put down. It's a gripping recital of all the ways America prepared for doomsday--with a few glimmers toward what our government may be doing today. From the death of FDR to 9/11, Garrett Graff gives us the stories of each president and each location America's government prepared (or didn't prepare) to survive doomsday. It also reads as the origin story for so much of the 21st century technology we take for granted today--and have no idea originated as doomsday prep.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folks don't realize how American politics and the presidency has been shaped by nuclear weapons and the associated need for control, rapid decision-making, and continuity of government. I read this before the pandemic, but interesting to think of in this new context/world we live in.

[Dillon Clancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating subject matter, but poorly edited and organized. Became a drag about 60% of the way through.

[Ked Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

😱😳☄️💥🏔⛺️🛩🦅

[AC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long and shockingly dull, given its theme and subtitle. Just a notarized report on the legal and physical construction of these CoG sites. Should be distilled as a wikipedia article.