The Day After World War III

Bureaucratically interesting book on how the government will survive World War III, dating from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Based on government documents, the book outlines some of the plans the Reagan government has for surviving the nuclear war. Forty or more years later, the plans seem foolish in many ways. While the continuity of operations is still important, what was planned seems rather silly today. A special place for the president of AT&T in the new government; the US Postal Service handling cards to list the living and the dead; emergency housing for survivors that includes turning McDonald's restaurants into cafeterias for the displaced persons.
A good review of the status of business and government offices to show what show more will continue after the devastation of a nuclear holocaust in the late 1970s.
Like many survival books and science fiction stories of this period in America's history, the book presumes that there will be massive survivors and intact infrastructure after a nuclear exchange, and that if the people were only organized, then America would quickly get back on their feet.
The chilling exploration of the day before World War IV shows what might happen if the nuclear exchanges don't stop. Missiles in silos or submarines might wait years or even decades before being launched in counter strikes, and no government can ever tell if the war will finally be over if the opposition can still sting like a dead wasp.
Also, the infrastructure discussed is all pre-Internet, and communications still relied on hard wired telephone and physical messages delivered by hand.
Still a chilling read. Recommended for larger libraries of holocaust studies, Reagan era history, and military science. I'm not sure many people would read this book on their own if not used in research for other subjects. show less