Michael Littlewood (Auckland; Google Scholar) & Micah Burch (Sydney), The U.S. Government’s 1967 Plan for the Survival of the Tax System in the Event of a Nuclear Attack, 44 Va. Tax Rev. __ (2024):

In 1967 the U.S. Government produced a plan (the Proposal) designed to ensure the continued operation of the federal tax system in the event of “a major nuclear attack.” The assumptions on which the Proposal was based were horrific: they included that the number of casualties in the United States might number 100 million; that 50% of the country’s real estate might be destroyed; and that its economy might be even more seriously disrupted than those figures suggest. The Proposal produced in 1967 seems to be the first of its kind. Presumably more recent plans have been formulated, but it seems that almost no information about them has been made public.

This article examines the 1967 plan and the thinking behind it. This is worthwhile for three main reasons. First, the formulation of the Proposal is itself a significant event in the twentieth century history of the United States, but almost nothing has been published about it. Secondly, an examination of the Proposal and the relations between the men who devised it provides novel insights into the manner in which the nation was governed in the 1960s, and of the extent to which the Soviet threat lay like a cloud over all aspects of the government’s decision making. Thirdly, although the Soviet Union has dissolved, the threat of nuclear attack has not. The 1967 plan would seem to be the obvious starting point, therefore, for anyone considering what the government’s current plans are — or should be.