Emergency Government

[kato13]

TR 03-21-2004, 06:47 PM This may interest those of us interested with the Civgov and Milgov angles... now technically we could have a third player in this all...



White House - AP

Eisenhower Planned Emergency Government


Sat Mar 20, 7:24 PM ET



By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON - CBS President Frank Stanton was one of six private citizens secretly recruited and granted authority by President Eisenhower to run major components of the government if a Soviet attack wiped out many American leaders.


No public announcement of the appointments was made. Their existence was confirmed by recently publicized Eisenhower administration letters.


A few weeks after the Soviets launched the first manmade satellite in 1957, shattering America's sense of security, Stanton was summoned to the White House to see Eisenhower.


Stanton knew his friend was agonizing over how to respond to Sputnik and the terrorizing thought that permeated America: Had the Soviets gained a huge first-strike advantage in the nuclear arms race?


But Stanton learned Eisenhower also was wrestling with how best to ensure the U.S. government could function in an emergency.


Stanton, who had no experience or ambitions in government, was taken aback when the president asked if he would be willing to oversee a federal communications agency after such an attack.


"I was surprised and startled by the breadth of the assignment," said the 96-year-old Stanton, who lives in Boston.


Nervous about the awesome task of keeping the nation's telephone, radio and television systems operating after an attack, Stanton said he nevertheless "agreed to do my chore."


"The president was planning for the unthinkable," said retired Army Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster, Eisenhower's staff secretary. "He wanted to bring in the wisdom and competence to reinforce whatever elements of the government survived and provide some assurance that our government could not be decapitated."


Presidents are granted vast powers under the Constitution to lead the nation in times of war or enemy attack.


Shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks, President Bush (news - web sites) created a shadow government of 75 to 150 officials who worked in mountainside bunkers outside Washington to ensure the government would function if the capital came under attack.


All those officials already were in government when they were given the assignment. Eisenhower is believed to be the first president to go outside government to look for leaders in a crisis.


"Eisenhower went beyond the normal lines of succession, which I think was a reflection of the widespread paralyzing fear that swept the country in the 1950s," said Peter Kuznick, a history professor and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University.


Besides Stanton, the appointees included George Baker, a Harvard Business School professor who was tapped to oversee transportation; Harold Boeschenstein, president of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., in charge of manufacturing and production; Aksel Nielsen, president of the Title Guaranty Co., housing; J. Ed Warren, senior vice president of the First National City Bank of New York, energy; and Theodore Koop, vice president of CBS, to oversee an emergency censorship agency. Koop would have had 40 civilian staff members to monitor and control wartime information about the devastation.


Eisenhower also appointed two Cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve Chairman William McChesney Martin to emergency posts for currency stabilization, food and labor.


"The people Eisenhower chose, while they were his friends, they were also the captains of industry of his day. People like Bill Gates (news - web sites) today," said Bill Geerhart, editor of a Web site called Conelrad, or Control of Electromagnetic Radiation. That was the name of nation's first emergency broadcasting system, established by President Truman.


The site posted the Eisenhower documents after obtaining them from the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan.


The selections were based as much on the appointees' geographic location and personal relationships with Eisenhower as their expertise. Nielsen, for example, was Eisenhower's regular fishing buddy.


The presidential form letters dated March 6, 1958, provide for the appointees to immediately take office in the event of a national emergency. Until then, they were asked to keep their status secret. They were promised an undisclosed salary but there were few specifics about their jobs.


The documents show the secret group met in July 1960 with the now-defunct Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization to discuss staffing for their agencies. But work barely got started before the group was relieved of its duties by President Kennedy, who took office in 1961.


Still, subsequent administrations have made contingency plans for government continuity -- often involving citizens outside government -- in the event of a devastating attack. For example, Kennedy's director of emergency planning, Frank Ellis, said in 1961 that the president had emergency appointees for transportation, agriculture and communications.


During the Reagan administration, then-Rep. Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and Donald Rumsfeld, who was chief executive of the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle & Co., were key players in a secret program to set aside the legal lines of succession and install a new president in a catastrophe, The Atlantic Monthly reported this month.

********************

Chuck Mandus 03-21-2004, 07:46 PM I remember there was a lot of flak in the late 1980's about a shadow government much like the one you described for such a situation and word was that President Reagan even had Ollie North work on the plans for it.


I think somewhere I had/have an article on Eisenhower's plans for a provisonal government too.


Reaching for the tin-foil hat, there are soem who say that we've had an emergency government since 1933 and the gold fringe around the flag means we are under "admiralty law." Can't confirm nor deny, but it would be a good story to use to get out of jury duty or something like that.


Chuck

********************

TR 03-21-2004, 09:55 PM Uh yeah... the whole admiralty court myth. I have often thought about doing a section on my web for the Patriot Community and all the different beliefs and types of groups across the USA. Sort of a idea generator for those looking for something to add to their local game.


For Twilight imagine the chaos of Civgov and Milgov's little debate if it came to light that there was a defacto group stating their proper government and THEY are illegitimate... Would put a twist on things, who to back and who to spy against eh?




Until Later


TR

********************

Chuck Mandus 03-27-2004, 11:33 AM Originally posted by TR

Uh yeah... the whole admiralty court myth. I have often thought about doing a section on my web for the Patriot Community and all the different beliefs and types of groups across the USA. Sort of a idea generator for those looking for something to add to their local game.


For Twilight imagine the chaos of Civgov and Milgov's little debate if it came to light that there was a defacto group stating their proper government and THEY are illegitimate... Would put a twist on things, who to back and who to spy against eh?




Until Later


TR


I know, there are so many conspiracies out there. Sometimes they contradict each other too or they would depend on so many factors falling into place, if you get one part of the formula wrong, it invalidates the who thing. I do believe that they might have a small kernal of truth in there, I mean I don't deny there would be people out there who would love to control the country, the world and so on, but I see more of a consensus than conspiracy. I admit too there are some questions that do need to be answered when you do bring up things like the Tri-Lateral Commission, Bilderbergers, Business Rountable, and so on, I do have to admit a lot of the world's movers and shakers are members.


I was listening to a repeat of George Noory one night as I was going to sleep and he did have a guest on addressing this issue talking about the Knights Templar, Masons, and the Bohemian Club. About the last one, I felt like I was back in 1986 in college when one of my profs was taking about them and their rituals and beliefs that some say tend to step into the occult. I remember their symbol was the owl.


Also remember conspiracy ideas span across all political ideologies both left and right and other factors as well. I remember in 1988 where there was a claim that Ronald Reagan in 1980 sent George Bush (President Bush, the father) to France to negotiate with the Iranians to hold our people until Ronald Reagan took office and flew in an SR-71 to boot. Dunno how the latter could happen, Ronald Reagan wasn't President yet so getting a hold of an SR-71 would have been out of the question.


Then there are some you do wonder about especially things like Roswell, black ops, and so on.


Chuck

********************

Jason Weiser 04-21-2004, 02:10 PM Hate to say it, but the fact is, Twilight is going to be a boon to every fringe group, cult and you name it out there. People are going to be scared, hungry and willing to listen to the first Jim Jones wannabe along. I suspect all three rival governments (though it's hard to call New America that, but they are a contender) will have their hands full. TR, put that up anyhow, as I suspect, at least on the right, New America coopted a lot of the Patriot/Right Wing fringe movement, as the module Kidnapped illustrates...makes one wonder, would a good adventure be working with one of these fringe groups to take out an NA cell be appropos?

********************

Ed the Coastie 04-21-2004, 10:54 PM What's amusing is that by the very nature of their foundings, MilGov and CivGov will not recognize each other as legitimate governments. However, BOTH will certainly agree that either has a much more legitimate claim than that of New America or any other right-wing organization...and are quite likely to work together in order to eventually stamp out the threat.


In fact, this could be the very thing that ultimately re-unites the MilGov and CivGov factions in the history that gives us the 2300 AD game...

********************