Presidential Successor Support System
The Presidential Successor Support System (PSSS or PS-cubed) is part of the United States' Continuity of Government (COG) programs.[1]. Considered one of many "black programs," (i.e. Special Access Programs), very few details have come to light about it.
The National Program Office was established in 1982, by National Security Decision Directive 55, Enduring National Leadership.[2]
Prior presidential administrations had different ways of dealing with the problem of leadership decapitation. President Eisenhower designated ten [3] captains of industry to take control of war-time organizations to help the country reconstitute itself. The existence of the Eisenhower Ten was accidentally found by the incoming John F. Kennedy administration in 1961.[3]
In terms of gauging how the Kennedy administration felt about the General's Shadow Government appointments, historians are left, for now at least, with Dutton's follow-up letter to McGeorge Bundy calling attention to the Eisenhower Ten (E-10). It is a truly remarkable document in that it is written in a controlled bureaucratic style, but one that only half-masks the author's indignation over the fact that (a.) there are citizens roaming the country with authority to take over the government the day after World War III and (b.) Bundy hasn't even replied to his first letter!
See also
- National Security Decision Directive 55 - "Enduring National Leadership," signed by President Reagan in 1982
- National Program Office
- Eisenhower Ten - ten individuals directed by President Eisenhower to reconstitute the U.S. government after national emergency (i.e. nuclear war)