Last Person Alive Gets to be President

“Spread out!” yells a man in uniform to a group of combat soldiers huddled together. “One grenade will wipe out all of you.” That military cliché illustrates the philosophy the U.S. government uses in selecting a Designated Survivor.

Most of the country’s federal officials attend major events such as the U.S. State of the Union and the presidential inauguration. The president, vice president, speaker of the house, cabinet members, both houses of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and the military chiefs of staff get packed into the Senate Chamber. Putting all the officials into one room makes the entire federal chain of command at risk. A cataclysmic event could kill all the people in charge and leave the United States vulnerable to a major attack.

One member of the U.S. Cabinet gets selected as the Designated Survivor. That person stays away from the major event and gets sequestered to a secret location miles away from Washington, D.C. Secret Service agents guard the Designated Survivor whose identity remains secret until after the major event ends.

The selected cabinet member receives deference from the Secret Service agents who formally address the designee as Mr. or Mrs. President during his or her several hours of comfortable isolation. The selected survivor gets an intense training course several days before the day of isolation. Under a high level of secrecy, the cabinet member gets educated on how to become president if the worst thing happens. But on the day of the event, the cabinet member has no official duties except to stay put, enjoy some excellent dining and watching the events on television as he or she enjoys an unofficial role as U.S. president.

If the president, vice president, speaker of the house and members of congress were killed, the survivor would become Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act. The Designated Survivor has to meet the same requirements as any U.S. president; he or she must be a naturally born citizen and be at least 35 years old.

The designated survivor gets custody of “The Football,” a 45-pound brief case that travels with the president’s security detail at all times. Inside the brief case is a list of nuclear strike options the president would use if the U.S. were attacked. “The Football” remains near the Designated Survivor, but it remains attached to the wrist of a Secret Service guard.

The ominous brief case dates back to the beginnings of the need for a Designated Survivor during the Cold War. During the height of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR, the U.S. sustained a 13-day confrontation called the Cuban Missile Crisis. Between October 16^th and the 28^th, 1962, President John F. Kennedy challenged the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to stop stockpiling missiles from the USSR into Cuba.

The proximity of Cuba to the U.S. caused concern about nuclear attack from the USSR. Khrushchev backed off and removed the missiles. Historians often write that the confrontation between the two super powers was the closest the world came to nuclear destruction.

Keeping The Football with the president and naming a Designated Survivor started about that time. But the extreme secrecy about the Cold War events wiped out all historical references that would give us the exact dates when the first Designated Survivor was named and when The Football began to be used.

The first official reference we have to a Designated Survivor is during a presidential address to the joint sessions of Congress on February 18, 1981. Incoming President Ronald Reagan made the address; Secretary of Education Terrel Bell was selected as the Designated Survivor.

That leaves a 54-year gap between the first time a Designated Survivor was used and the first time a public record of the practice was released 35 years ago. Since then, two women serving as U.S. Cabinet members have been named Designated Survivors. In 1996, President Bill Clinton made history when he selected Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to be the first woman to hold the honor. President George W. Bush chose Interior Secretary Gale Norton in 2002 as the second woman to be a Designated Survivor.

This year’s State of the Union had two Designated Survivors for the first time. They were Orrin Hatch, Republican senator from Utah, and Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security.

National defense systems would prevent any attack that could destroy the U.S. Senate Chamber with all the top-level politicians inside. The Cold War is long over, but forces in the Middle East are bent on destroying the United States. With that in mind, the mostly ceremonial custom of selecting a Designated Survivor will remain part of the country’s heritage.

Thank you for taking time to read this blog. A new one will be in this space later this month. Meanwhile, view my web site at www.joevlatino.com. That’s where you can get a sample of my short story writing and an opportunity to read my book “The Device.”