Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

enough beds to accommodate two thousand high-ranking officials: The actual number was 2,200. Cited in Wainstein et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” p. 232.

the Air Force and the other armed services disagreed: The Air Force viewed Site R as a military command post that should be manned by those who would need to give orders during wartime, not used as a refuge for Pentagon officials or unnecessary personnel. See ibid., pp. 226–32.

at Mount Weather, a similar facility: For the details of this bunker and its operations, see This Is Only a Test, pp. 106–7, 165–6; Ted Gup, “Doomsday Hideaway,” Time, December 9, 1991; and Ted Gup, “The Doomsday Blueprints,” Time, August 10, 1992.

Eisenhower had secretly given nine prominent citizens: CONELRAD, a Web site devoted to Cold War history and culture, obtained Eisenhower’s letters appointing the men to serve in these posts during a national emergency. Ten men were eventually asked to serve, after one resigned from his position. See “The Eisenhower Ten” at www.conelrad.com.

Patriotic messages from Arthur Godfrey: Bill Geerhart, a founder of the CONELRAD Web site, has been determined for more than twenty years to obtain a copy of Arthur Godfrey’s public address announcement about nuclear war. See “Arthur Godfrey, the Ultimate PSA” and “The Arthur Godfrey PSA Search: Updated” at www.conelrad.com. The existence of these messages by Godfrey and Edward R. Murrow was mentioned in Time magazine. See “Recognition Value,” Time, March 2, 1953.

Beneath the Greenbrier Hotel: See Ted Gup, “Last Resort: The Ultimate Congressional Getaway,” Washington Post, May 31, 1992; Thomas Mallon, “Mr. Smith Goes Underground,” American Heritage, September 2000; and John Strausbaugh, “A West Virginia Bunker Now a Tourist Spot,” New York Times, November 12, 2006.

A bunker was later constructed for the Federal Reserve: Once known as “Mount Pony,” the site is now used by the Library of Congress to store old sound recordings and films. See “A Cold War Bunker Now Shelters Archive,” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2007.

inside the Kindsbach Cave: See A. L. Shaff, “World War II History Buried in Kindsbach,” Kaiserslautern American, July 1, 2011.

the code names SUBTERFUGE, BURLINGTON, and TURNSTYLE: For the story of the Central Government Emergency War Headquarters, see Nick McCamley, Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers: The Passive Defense of the Western World During the Cold War (Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military Classics, 2007), pp. 248–77, and Hennessy, Secret State, pp. 186–205.

a pub called the Rose & Crown: That detail can be found in Maurice Chittenden, “For Sale: Britain’s Underground City,” Sunday Times (London), October 30, 2005.

half a dozen large storage sites: The AEC had added three more national stockpile sites — Site Dog in Bossier, Louisiana; Site King in Medina, Texas; and Site Love in Lake Mead, Nevada.

the president … would have to sign a directive: For the transfer procedure, see Wainstein, et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” pp. 34–5.

SAC would get the cores in about twelve minutes: Ibid., p. 35.

Eisenhower approved the shipment of nuclear cores: Before leaving office, Truman had formally granted the Department of Defense the authority to have custody of nuclear weapons outside the continental United States — and within the United States “to assure operational flexibility and military readiness.” But Truman did not release any additional weapons to the military. At the end of his administration, the AEC had custody of 823 nuclear weapons — and the military controlled just the 9 weapons sent to Guam during the Korean War. Eisenhower’s decision in June 1953 put the new policy into effect, and within a few years the military had sole custody of 1,358 nuclear weapons, about one third of the American stockpile. For the text of Eisenhower’s order, see “History of Custody and Deployment,” p. 29. For the number of weapons in military and civilian custody during those years, see Wainstein, et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” p. 34; and for a thorough account of the power shift from the Atomic Energy Commission to the Department of Defense, see Feaver, Guarding the Guardians, pp. 128–63.

make the stockpile much less vulnerable to attack: Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff both used this argument. See Feaver, Guarding the Guardians, p. 162, and “History of Custody and Deployment,” p. 37.