Eric Schlosser - Command and Control

at least two hours’ warning of an attack: Cited in ibid., p. 203.

a distance of about twelve thousand miles: Cited in ibid., p. 207.

almost half a million tons of building material: Roughly 459,900 tons were transported into the Arctic by barges, planes, and tractor-pulled sleds. Cited in James Louis Isemann, “To Detect, to Deter, to Defend: The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line and Early Cold War Defense Policy, 1953–1957,” dissertation, Department of History, Kansas State University, 2009, p. 299.

temperatures as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit: Cited in ibid., p. 304.

“The computerization of society”: I first encountered the quote in Edwards, The Closed World , on page 65. The original source is a fascinating book: Frank Rose, Into the Heart of the Mind: An American Quest for Artificial Intelligence (New York: Harper & Row, 1984).

America’s first large-scale electronic digital computer, ENIAC: The acronym stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.

researchers concluded that the Whirlwind computer: It is hard to overstate the importance of the Whirlwind computer and the SAGE air defense system that evolved from it. The historian Thomas P. Hughes described the creation of SAGE as “one of the major learning experiences in technological history” — as important as the construction of the Erie Canal. The historians Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith have called SAGE “a technical innovation of such consequence as to make it one of the major human accomplishments of the twentieth century.” And yet one of the great ironies of SAGE, according to the historian Paul N. Edwards, is that it probably wouldn’t have worked. “It was easily jammed,” Edwards noted, “and tests of the system under actual combat conditions were fudged to avoid revealing its many flaws.” It created the modern computer industry and transformed society — but probably wouldn’t have detected a Soviet bomber attack. For these quotes, as well as descriptions of how SAGE influenced the future, see Thomas P. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World (New York: Vintage, 1998), p. 15; Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, From Whirlwind to Mitre: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000), p. 429; and Edwards, Closed World, p. 110.

the first computer network: See Edwards, Closed World , p. 101.

contained about 25,000 vacuum tubes and covered about half an acre: Cited in Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus , p. 51.

SAGE created the template for the modern computer industry: See Redmond and Smith, From Whirlwind to Mitre , pp. 436–43; and Edwards, Closed World , pp. 99–104.

almost five hours after being sent: During a SAC command exercise in September 1950 the average transmission time for teletype messages was four hours and forty-five minutes. See Wainstein, et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” p. 78.

a special red telephone at SAC headquarters: See ibid., p. 162.

an automated command-and-control system: It was called the SAC 456L System, or SACCS — the Strategic Automated Command and Control System. It was commissioned in 1958 but did not become fully operational until 1963. See ibid., pp. 169–70; and “The Air Force and the Worldwide Military Command and Control System, 1961–1965,” Thomas A. Sturm, USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, DASMC-66 013484, SHO-S-66/279, August 1966 (SECRET/declassified), NSA, p. 12.

from an hour and a half to six hours behind the planes: See Wainstein, et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” p. 170.

“I don’t think I would put that much money”: Quoted in “Supersonic Air Transports,” Report of the Special Investigating Subcommittee of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Eighty-sixth Congress, Second Session, 1960, p. 47.

It extended three levels underground and could house about eight hundred people: See “Welcome to Strategic Air Command Headquarters,” Directorate of Information, Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base (n.d.).

Below the East Wing at the White House: For Roosevelt’s bunker and the construction of a new bunker for Truman, see Krugler, This Is Only a Test , pp. 68–75.

an underground complex with twenty rooms: Cited in ibid., p. 73.

the airburst of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb: Cited in ibid., p. 70.

Known as Site R: For details about Site R, see ibid., p. 63–6.

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.