John Washington III Asks What the Government Built to Protect the People While It Built Bunkers for Its Leaders

John Washington III, a 2028 presidential candidate, is asking what the United States government built to protect ordinary Americans during the Cold War, measured against what it built for its own leadership. In his post, John Washington III wrote that the government invested millions of dollars constructing underground facilities designed to protect government leadership and preserve military operations in the event of a nuclear attack, and he asked what the government built to give the American people that same level of protection.

John Washington III listed the facilities and the spending as he presented them. The Greenbrier bunker in West Virginia, designed to shelter members of Congress, cost approximately $14 million, he wrote. The Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania had reportedly cost $35 million by April 1954, and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado cost approximately $142 million to construct during the 1960s. Mount Weather in Virginia became another major federal emergency facility, he wrote, although its complete historical construction cost is not readily established in the public records he reviewed.

For the public, John Washington III wrote, the federal government established a fallout shelter program, identified existing buildings that could provide protection, and distributed emergency supplies. He cited a Government Accountability Office report documenting approximately $122 million in food and emergency supplies purchased for public fallout shelters in the early 1960s, and he wrote that the government also funded some shelter construction and improvements.

John Washington III wrote that much of the public program depended on buildings that already existed rather than constructing dedicated underground facilities comparable to those serving government leadership, and he wrote that this is where his concern begins. His question, as he framed it, is why a government that recognized the danger strongly enough to build specialized underground facilities for its leadership did not make a comparable construction effort for the people.