This Is Only Test How Washington Prepared for Nuclear War (44 page)

9 Land of the Blind

1. Rabb to Flemming, July 31, 1956, 9, attached to Record of Action, July 26, 1956, box 7, folder “Cabinet Meeting of July 25, 1956,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
   
2. The following sources were used to describe the warning system and the “surprise alert”: Kenneth Schaffel,
   The Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945–1960
   (Washington, D.C.: USAF, Office of Air Force History, 1991), 238; “Report on the New FCDA Attack Warning Plan,” November 8, 1956, box 2, folder “25b Staff Study”; Position Description, Civil Defense Officer (Attack Warning), August 6, 1956, box 3,
   

folder “Position Description CD Officer”; “Back-Up Data for Holifield Committee,” March 6, 1956, box 3, folder “23 Holifield Committee”; Leslie Kullenberg to Attack Warning Division, January 28, 1957, box 3, folder “30 Memos—Inter-Office”; Harold Aitken to Val Peterson, September 13, 1955, box 3, folder “33 NAWAC,” RG 396, Warning File and Communications Subject File, 1951–59 (hereafter Warning File); Aitken to all personnel, undated, and Kullenberg, “Report on Surprise Alert,” December 21, 1955, box 2, folder “Surprise Alert Dec. 20, 1955,” RG 396, Operations and Exercise File, 1953–61.

1. Note by the Executive Secretary to the NSC, March 5, 1955, box 15, folder “NSC 5513/1—Attack Warning,” NSC Policy Paper Subseries.
   
2. Beach to the NSC Special Committee, March 19, 1956, box 2, folder “EP— Attack Warning 1956–57 (2),” EAS.
   
3. Peterson to James Lay, June 29, 1956, box 15, folder “NSC 5513/1—Attack Warning,” NSC Policy Papers Subseries.
   
4. The Maryland counties of Calvert, St. Marys, and Charles also received warning information from the new center. Portions of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Md., lay within 20 miles of the zero milestone marker; however, they weren’t included as part of the new warning area.
   Washington Warning Area Control Point Operating Procedures
   , effective July 1, 1958, box 1, folder “Classified Location SOP,” RG 396, Warning File, 1.
   
5. Peterson to Lay, June 29, 1956, and August 15, 1956, box 15, folder “NSC 5513/1—Attack Warning,” NSC Policy Papers Subseries.
   
6. Peterson to Lay, “Actions by FCDA to Implement the Washington Area Warning Center,” August 28, 1956, box 15, folder “NSC 5513/1—Attack Warning,” NSC Policy Papers Subseries; memorandum of discussion, September 28, 1956, box 8, folder “298th Meeting of NSC,” Whitman File, NSC Series.
   
7. Edwards to Director, Attack Warning Division, October 19, 1956, March 8, 1957, and October 6, 1957, box 1, folder “Washington Warning Center Weekly Reports,” RG 396, Warning File.
   
8. Dee to all personnel, July 24, 1957, box 1, folder “National-SOP”; Edwards to Dee, February 21, 1958, box 1, folder “Classified Location Special and Periodic Reports—1958,” RG 396, Warning File.
   
9. DCD, “Standard Operating Procedure for Attack Warning Division,” February 1957, Office of Civil Defense Memoranda Orders, Washingtoniana, 2.
   
10. Barnet Beers, Status Report no. 3, March 14, 1958, folder “Regular Meeting, March 25, 1958,” and E.G. Heatwole to the Alexandria City Council, January 7, 1958, folder “Regular Meeting February 11, 1958,” Alexandria Records.
    
11. Edwards to Roderick, October 4, 1957, box 1, folder “Washington Warning Center Weekly Reports,” RG 396, Warning File; Flow Chart, Appendix 2 to
    Washington Warning Area Control Point
    .
    
12. “Proposed Changes to the Chart ‘Attack Warning Channels for Civilians,’ ” January 30, 1957, box 2, folder “EP Attack Warning 1956–57(4),” EAS; “Basic Rules for Issuance of Air Raid Warning,” March 29, 1957, box 2, folder “16 Conelrad”; “FCDA Emergency Personnel Alerting Plan,” October 22, 1957, box 1, folder “National—SOP,” RG 396, Warning File.
    
13. Edwards to Director, Attack Warning Division, April 29, 1957, box 1, folder “Washington Warning Center Weekly Reports,” RG 396, Warning File.
    
1. “Washington Warning Area Control Point Public Action Signal Determination Charts,” Appendix 4, September 26, 1958, box 1, folder “Classified Location
   
2. SOP”; Beers to Assistant Administrator Communications, June 19, 1958, box 1, folder “Classified Location—Correspondence,” RG 396, Warning File.
   
14. Washington Warning Area Control Point
    , Appendix 2; Beers to Assistant Administrator Communications, June 19, 1958; “Air Attack Warning System Expanded in Capital Area,” OCDM Press Release, August 28, 1958; Harry Roderick, “Malfunctioning of Siren Circuit,” December 2, 1958, folder “Washington, D.C. Special Reports,” RG 396, Warning File; M.L. Reese to the Montgomery County Council, December 10, 1959, box 1, folder 9, Series I, Subject File, MCA.
    
15. DCD Quarterly Report, September 30, 1958, box 229, folder 4-1056, RG 351, BOC.
    
16. Memorandum dictated July 19, 1956, box 9, folder “July 1956,” RG 40, Records of Undersecretary of Commerce Walter Williams.
    
17. Goodpaster memorandum, May 19, 1955; Harold Botkin to Flemming, June 8, 1955; Goodpaster to Lt. Colonel George McNally, July 6, 1955; McNally to Goodpaster, August 10, 1955; Goodpaster to McNally, August 13, 1955, box 2, folder “EO-Communications (1)”; McNally to Chief, Army Communications Service Division, September 13, 1955; diagrams of the Red Line circuits, box 2, folder “EP-Communications (5),” EAS.
    
18. Flemming to Franklin G. Floete, April 27, 1956; Floete to Flemming, May 16, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 2 Essential Records,” RG 64; Lewis Strauss to Flemming, May 15, 1956, box 172, folder “Security 16 Emergency Action Papers,” RG 326, Office of the Secretary General Correspondence, 1951–58.
    
19. ODM, Alert Documents nos. 2 and 3, in “Key Documents for Operation Alert 1956,” box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7 (General)”; copies of telegrams received at GSA relocation site, July 20, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 part 7C,” RG 64.
    
20. “6-Day Air Raid Test Opens Today,
    ”
    WP
    , July 20, 1956, sec. A, pp. 1–2; “U.S. Cities ‘Razed’ in Atomic Drill” and “ ‘Business-as-Usual’ Attitude Greets A-Drill,”
    WP
    , July 21, 1956, sec. A, pp. 1, 8; “Operation Alert 1956,” report prepared for the FCDA by the Stanford Research Institute, March 1, 1956, box 2, binder “Operation Alert 1956,” RG 396, Operations and Exercise File, 1953–61; “General Instructions for Operation Alert 1956,” April 2, 1956, box 7, folder “Cabinet Meeting of April 6, 1956,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
    
21. ODM, “Operation Alert 1956 Final News Roundup,” July 25, 1956, box 10, folder “Operation Alert 1956 General,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 64A927; ODM, “Briefing for Operation Alert 1956 (Revised),” box 3, folder “
    OPAL
    1955 (2)”; Flemming to Eisenhower, July 21, 1956, folder “
    OPAL
    1956 (4),” EAS; “Agencies to Be Served by Mail Messenger” and “Motor Transport Service for Operation Alert 1956,” June 29, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7,” RG 64.
    
22. GSA Relocation Officer to participants, July 13, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7 (General)”; Code Word List for
    OPAL
    1956, folder “056-129 Part 7C,” RG 64.
    
23. GSA Relocation Officer to Wayne Grover, August 13, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7B”; “Facts Bearing on Success of Communications System in the Exercise,” undated, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7C”; GSA News, “Special Edition Operation Alert 1956”;
    Federal Register
    , July 22 and 25, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7 (General),” RG 64.
    
24. GSA News, “Special Edition”;
    BAS
    9, no. 7 (September 1953): 267; exercise
    news copy, July 22, 1956, box 116, folder “056-129 Part 7C”; Wayne Grover to
    

the Director, Office of Management, May 10, 1956, folder “056-129 Part 2 Essential Records,” RG 64.

1. Deputy Archivist to Deputy Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, August 29, 1957, box 2, folder “Part II,” RG 64, Office of the Archivist, Wayne C. Grover Day File.
   
2. “Operation Alert 1956,” July 24, 1956, box 7, folder “Cabinet Meeting of July 25, 1956,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series; Rabb to Flemming, July 31, 1956, 5; Department of Defense, “Final Evaluation Report for Operation Alert 1956,” undated, box 3, folder “Final Evaluation Report for
   OPAL
   1956 (1),” EAS; Report by the Joint Strategic Plans Committee to the JCS, July 24, 1956, box 35, folder “CCS354.2 U.S. (7-20-56) Sec. 2,” RG 218, Geographic File, 1954–56.
   
3. Eisenhower diary entry, January 23, 1956, box 12, folder “January 1956 Diary,” Whitman File, Diary Series.
   
4. Rabb to Flemming, July 31, 1956, 2; Flemming to Heads of Executive Departments, April 2, 1956, box 7, folder “Cabinet Meeting of April 6, 1956,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series, 3; untitled report, circa July 1956, box 1, folder “Current Matters,” EAS, 4.
   
5. Rabb to Flemming, July 31, 1956, 6–10. See also Guy Oakes,
   The Imaginary
   War: Civil Defense and American Cold War Culture
   (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 150–1.
   
6. Beach to Adams, July 30, 1956, box 3, folder “
   OPAL
   1956(4)”; Adams to Gray, March 6, 1957, box 2, folder “EP—Emergency Action Papers (1),” EAS; Author telephone interview with Roemer McPhee, August 25, 2003.
   
7. ODM,
   Mobilization Plan C
   , June 1, 1957, box 5, folder “Mobilization Plans (4),” White House Office, Office of the Staff Secretary, Arthur Minnich Series, DDEL; Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization,
   Federal Emergency Plan D-Minus
   , June 1959, box 2, folder “Fed. Emergency Plans (1),” EAS.
   
8. The two quoted items come from the NSC memorandum of discussion, July 12, 1957, box 9, folder “330th Meeting of NSC,” Whitman File, NSC Series, 1, 4. The other information comes from “Operation Alert, 1957” and attachments, January 28, 1957, box 8, folder “Cabinet Meeting of February 1, 1957”; “Operation Alert, 1957” and attachments, May 20, 1957, box 9, folder “Cabinet Meeting of May 24, 1957”; “Exercise Record of Action,” June 21, 1957; “Briefing Guides for Operation Alert,” box 9, folder “Cabinet Meeting of June 21, 1957,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series; teletype, July 15, 1957, box 5, folder “
   OPAL
   1957 (bomb damage assessment) (3),” EAS; Secretary of Defense to the Secretaries of the Military Departments et al., May 8, 1957, box 3, folder “Department of Defense,” RG 396, Operations and Exercise Files, 1953–61.
   
9. Eisenhower to Koop, March 21, 1955; Koop to Eisenhower, April 5, 1955, box 1, folder “Emergency Designees (1),” EAS. In 1958, Eisenhower asked other prominent private citizens to head up some of the emergency agencies.
   
10. Evan Aurand to White House Emergency Staff, July 3, 1957, box 4, folder “
    OPAL
    1957(5)”; teletype, July 17, 1957, box 5, folder “
    OPAL
    1957 (bomb damage assessment) (3)”; memorandum for Goodpaster, July 19, 1957, box 4, folder “
    OPAL
    1957(7),” EAS; Bradley Patterson to Goodpaster, June 13, 1957, box 9, folder “Cabinet Meeting of June 17, 1957,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
    
11. Teletype, July 15, 1957, box 4, folder “
    OPAL
    1957 (messages) (3)”; teletype, July 19, 1957, box 5, folder “
    OPAL
    1957 (bomb damage assessment) (1),” EAS.
    
1. The quotes come from L. Arthur Minnich’s paraphrasing of the President. See Minutes of Cabinet Meeting, July 19, 1957, box 9, folder “Special Cabinet
   
2. Meeting on Operation Alert—July 19, 1957,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series. Unsigned notes on White House stationery suggest the President’s actual words were harsher than those recorded. According to these notes, the President said, “Martial law—tell people what to do and shoot them if they don’t—have to do it.” Also: “Won’t be any lawyers—most of em [
   sic
   ] will be in big cities and be killed.” Box 4, folder “Operation Alert 1957 (7),” EAS.
   
12. Author interview with General Andrew J. Goodpaster (Ret.), July 15, 2003, Washington, D.C.
    
13. Eisenhower to the Naval Aide, December 13, 1957, box 1, folder “EAP— Correspondence (4)”; withdrawal sheet, box 1, folder “Emergency Action Documents—Copies of Documents Ready for President’s Approval”; Goodpaster to ODM Director, December 4, 1957, box 2, folder “EP-Emergency Action Papers (1),” EAS; Cabinet Record of Action, June 23, 1958, box 11, folder “Cabinet Meeting of June 13, 1958” and Cabinet Action Status Report, October 3, 1958, box 12, folder “Cabinet Meeting of October 9, 1958,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series; Robert Cutler to Gray, June 9, 1958, box 10, folder “Emergency Action Documents [1958–59],” White House Office, NSC Staff Papers, Executive Secretary’s Subject File Series, DDEL.
    
14. “Exercise Document Operation Alert 1958,” undated, box 11, folder “Cabinet Meeting of July 7, 1958,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
    
15. ODM Telecommunications Area, “Operation Alert 1958—Evacuation and Capability Estimate,” June 13, 1958, box 12, folder “Evaluations
    OPAL
    1958 Reports,” RG 396, Declassified P-95 Records, Accession 64A927.
    
16. “Suggested Report to the Cabinet,” September 29, 1958, box 12, folder “Cabinet Meeting of September 26, 1958,” 3; “Briefing of President,” July 7, 1958, box 11, folder “Cabinet Meeting of July 7, 1958”; “Report by Operation Alert Seminar Groups on Operational Readiness, Security, and Emergency Information,” undated, box 12, folder “Cabinet Meeting of October 9, 1958,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
    
17. Goodpaster memorandum, August 7, 1958, box 21, folder “Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization (1),” SSAS; Eisenhower to Hoegh, August 25, 1958; Robert Gray to Eisenhower, September 24, 1958, box 12, folder “Cabinet Meeting of September 26, 1958,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
    
18. S. Rept. 1717, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., June 17, 1958
    ,
    Senate Reports
    vol. 12062.
    
19. The following departments or agencies were asked to assign cadres to Mount Weather: Agriculture, Budget, Commerce, GSA, HEW, Housing and Home Finance Agency, Interior, Labor, Postal Service, Treasury, and Veterans Administration. In addition, the AEC, Small Business Administration, Defense, Federal Reserve Board, Justice, and State were asked to assign liaisons to Mount Weather. See Robert Gray to Goodpaster, August 6, 1958, box 2, folder “Emergency Procedures—EAPS (2),” EAS; Hoegh to Heads of Departments and Agencies, September 2, 1958, box 12, folder “Federal Emergency Relocation Plan [April 1959–September 1960](2),” SSAS.
    
20. Cabinet Record of Action, September 29, 1958, box 7, folder “Cabinet Meeting of June 21, 1956,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series.
    
21. “Discussion of Operation Alert 1958,” October 9, 1958; Cabinet Record of Action, October 25, 1958; “Approved Recommendations Growing Out of Operation Alert, 1958,” October 31, 1958, box 12, folder “Cabinet Meeting of October 9, 1958,” Whitman File, Cabinet Series. In addition to the Regional