The FBI reportedly came up with a top-secret, though short-lived, plan for preserving national security in case of a nuclear attack during the Cold War – including the immediate roundup of thousands with "subversive" ties.
Documents released to a journalism organization,
MuckRock, show the 1956 plan would have put the nation under martial law and allowed for nearly 13,000 people to be detained for their links to "subversive organizations,"
International Business Times reports.
The "Plan C" was ordered destroyed in 1957; Plans A and B didn't exist, IBT reports.
According to the documents obtained by MuckRock under the Freedom of Information Act, Plan C would have kicked in "after a war has begun in which the U.S. is involved or may become involved and prior to an actual attack on the U.S. itself."
Government organizations would decide which workers were essential and where to hide them in backup offices; Soviet embassies would be searched for weapons, radios and explosives; and up to 900 Soviet diplomats and couriers would be taken into custody, the documents show.
And, according to the plan, the government would also activate a detention program to arrest "individuals whose affiliations with subversive organizations are so pronounced that their continued liberty in the event of national emergency would present a serious threat." The FBI figured that number would be 12,949.
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