Thursday, November 7, 1963: Deep Underground Command Center

To be built 3,500 feet below the Pentagon and connected to the White House by tunnels, this "logical, survivable node" would be built to withstand "multiple direct hits of 200 to 300 (megaton) weapons bursting at the surface or 100 MT weapons pentrating to depths of 70 to 100 feet." The DUCC was never built, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluding that it "would be too small, and its communications too uncertain, to serve as a military command center."
     -- From "Every Nuclear-Tipped Missile is an 'Accident Waiting to Happen' " (summary of "Command and Control," Eric Schlosser, 2013): @

* "Memorandum for the President" (Robert McNamara, November 7, 1963): @

* "Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense McNamara" (January 10, 1964): @
* "Editorial Note" (summary, from "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968"): @
* Documents (from cryptome.org): @
* "The Worldwide Military Command and Control System: A Historical Perspective, 1960-1977" (Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1980): @
* "Command and Control": @
* "The Nation's Cockpit: The DUCC and Decision-Making Under Nuclear Attack" (from Atomic Skies blog): @ 

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