U.S. Planned Secret Government after Soviets Launched Sputnik in 1957

By Hope Yen
Associated Press
posted: 02:50 pm ET
21 March 2004



WASHINGTON (AP) _ 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.

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wow - that is something else!

It makes sense though - he was in charge of a major comm network already, so really, he would be very experienced in running a federal comm network.

BTW - I'd put this somewhere else then UFO's and Aliens........

i know still wondering were I did have to post it to. if somebody knows he may move it

would that really suprise you if that was true? We have a war on space, as well as a war on basically everything else. The USA is too imperialistic for its own good, IMO.

planned a 'secret government' eh. Makes sense, and there doesn't have to be any conspiracy about it. If a war occurs and the government goes to hell, who is gonna run the country? The people previously picked of course. The public wasn't told because they would lose confidence in the government, even though there was no logical reason for losing confidence. I think it would be stupid not having a so called 'secret government'.