Question: Nation's Plans in the event of Post-Nuclear Strikes

[AdmiralMB]

One interesting tidbit of CoG in the US was the plan by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to replenish the nation's currency supply, most of which would likely have been destroyed or irradiated in an attack. They built a specialized bunker in Virginia inside of Mount Pony loaded with several billion dollars worth of currency, and with it the government would presumably use it to restart a more "traditional" economy in the aftermath of an exchange. The feasibility of such a plan is marginal at best, but it didn't stop them from putting everything together to try.

The bunker itself is still in use today, although now by the Library of Congress to store copies of their entire audio and visual catalog.

 

[GameBawesome]

One interesting tidbit of CoG in the US was the plan by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to replenish the nation's currency supply, most of which would likely have been destroyed or irradiated in an attack. They built a specialized bunker in Virginia inside of Mount Pony loaded with several billion dollars worth of currency, and with it the government would presumably use it to restart a more "traditional" economy in the aftermath of an exchange. The feasibility of such a plan is marginal at best, but it didn't stop them from putting everything together to try.

The bunker itself is still in use today, although now by the Library of Congress to store copies of their entire audio and visual catalog.

Okay, I just had to comment on this.

So, you’re telling me, the later plot of Fallout 76, was actually based off the plan for the US government to store its currency/gold reserves in one of the Virginia‘s (FO76 being West Virginia) in the case of nuclear apocalypse?

Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone so far for answering my question. It’s been really informative, and I can’t wait for more responses and discussion on this thread

 

[Monk78]

Can we just limit the nuclear exchange to 25 to 30 weapons on each side?
Let’s say both sides sees This insanity getting out of control rein in their military leaders and a ceasefire is concluded
Assume all weapons used are “ tactical “ ( artillery , free fall bombs , AShM , SSM etc)
how will world recover after such a limited war ?

 

[Matt Wiser]

There's a book from the 1980s called The Day After World War III, which goes into considerable detail on how the U.S. and Soviet Governments planned to ride out a nuclear exchange and continue to function. Not just military prep (Looking Glass, the NEACP Airborne Command Post, bunkers, etc., along with surviving bombers and submarines), but things like the IRS (personal war losses not tax deductible, but penalties for filing late returns would be waived), Post Offices (Change of address forms, forwarding mail, mail delivery, etc.) the Weather Service (in charge of fallout prediction), etc. Every government agency had plans, Congress with a bunker (the Greenbriar Hotel in West Virginia, as it turned out), the Supreme Court with another (maybe Mount Weather), Raven Rock (JCS and the President), and so on. There's only one chapter on the Soviets, and that's limited to open-source material and what FOIA info could be obtained from the CIA and other agencies.

 

[Matt Wiser]

Can we just limit the nuclear exchange to 25 to 30 weapons on each side?
Let’s say both sides sees This insanity getting out of control rein in their military leaders and a ceasefire is concluded
Assume all weapons used are “ tactical “ ( artillery , free fall bombs , AShM , SSM etc)
how will world recover after such a limited war ?

It depends on where the "limited war" is. If it's Europe, then there's still going to be a hell of a mess, because there will have likely been a few days to a few weeks of major conventional war operations going on. If in Asia (Korea, say), the same applies, but if a NK nuke or two hits Japan, there's likely to be some very serious damage to the global economy (especially if Tokyo is hit), and that would take some time to recover. The Middle East? Lots of variables there. Arab-Israeli or Iranian-Israeli, U.S-Soviet, etc., India-Pakistan? Same thing. If India has to preempt a Pakistani strike? They have to be choosy as to targeting and fuzing, as surface or near-surface bursts mean fallout on Indian territory. The Pakistanis would be under no such illusions-and might fire if they're about to lose a major conventional war with India.

 

[Julius Vogel]

I am not sure NZ had detailed plans necessarily, although I guess they had something. What they did produce however at least in the mid 1980s was a study about how the country would cope in the event of nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere.

Surviving but with increasingly severe economic and health problems developing, basically.

 

[Exostrike]

Its not a joke, or well it is a joke but also something that exists.

Custume Barracks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Inside Ireland's secret VIP nuclear bunker

In the 1960s, the Irish government was so concerned about a nuclear attack that it urged householders to stock up on groceries for 14 days - just in case it happened.

www.independent.ie

From some of the clips its not really even deep enough but even without that, back in the day getting from Dublin to Athlone was no quick trip, it probably would have been the local TD ending up in the bunker. To be fair there were other smaller bunkers but not for any continuance of Government or population survival.

Though it seems like the doomsday lads might be thinking about a new bunker:

Inside the luxurious doomsday bunker that could soon land in Ireland

Ireland could soon be host to one of the most plush bunkers built to withstand the apocalypse

www.irishmirror.ie

To be fair this happened in Britain as well has the scale of nuclear war kept growing faster than counters could be built.

For example Britain first built bunkers against conventional air raids (reinforced concrete surface installations), then when the Russians got the bomb they started building underground installations expecting a slow slide into war and to be attacked by bombers that would give the government to relocate and disperse. Then by the time the bunkers were ready the threat was now ICBMs and the Cuba missile crisis showed WW3 could start very quickly rendering such plans moot. The increase in the number and megatonnage of expecting nukes also rendered the viability of bunkers less and less.