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In 1962, the U.S. planned a secret presidential bunker 3,000–4,000 feet underground, designed to withstand a 300-megaton nuclear strike. LBJ canceled the project in 1964, calling it “the stupidest idea he had ever heard.” The plan was intended to provide the president and a small group of officials with a secure command center capable of functioning during an extreme national emergency. Early designs could accommodate just 50 people, while later versions expanded the capacity to roughly 300. The larger facility was estimated to cost $310 million—worth billions today. Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff questioned whether the bunker would work. They argued that it might be too small to serve as an effective command center and warned that its communications systems and exits could become unusable during the very crisis it was meant to survive. The proposal carried into the Johnson administration. According to presidential adviser Spurgeon Keeny, when LBJ was briefed on the project in 1965, he made it clear he had no intention of hiding underground while Washington faced catastrophe, calling it “the stupidest idea he had ever heard.” Congress provided only limited funding, and the Deep Underground Command Center (DUCC) was never built.(Historic Vids)
