What Happened To JFK’s Secret Nuclear Hideouts?

Cold War relics

The Cold War was a tumultuous period in history, with the threat of nuclear armageddon looming large for decades. As a result, sturdy bunkers were constructed across America in order to protect US citizens in the event of a nuclear fallout. Many of these Cold War landmarks remain today, including two built for President John F. Kennedy.

Read on to discover the fascinating story of JFK's Cold War bunkers. To view in FULL SCREEN on a desktop, click the icon in the top right of the image...

Uneasy post-war relations

Tension and rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union – an unlikely ally of the United States during World War II – mushroomed following the end of the conflict in 1945.

The West was concerned about the spread of communism through Eastern Europe as well as the ensuing build-up of nuclear weapons, while Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unhappy with the division of Europe after the war. Pictured are Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945.

A complex conflict

The resulting conflict was called the Cold War, a complex period of antagonism between east and west that bubbled away for 45 years, and was characterized by espionage and political game-playing.

All the while, the threat of nuclear war lingered as the Americans and Soviets spent vast sums of money on advanced weaponry. Warning posters and advisory pocketbooks like the one pictured were commonplace.

A rising threat

A defining moment came more than a decade after World War II ended, in 1957, when Nikita Khrushchev (pictured), leader of the Soviet Union between 1953 and 1964, made some alarming statements in a media interview. Khrushchev challenged US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a "peaceful rocket contest," further fuelling fears about impending nuclear war.

JFK takes the reins

A long string of American presidents served during the Cold War, including Harry Truman, Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, whose efforts during the conflict still have an enduring legacy.

It was under Kennedy’s government that a national fallout shelter program was rolled out, meant to reassure and protect citizens from nuclear disaster. He is pictured here talking with Khrushchev.

The nuclear fallout shelter programme kicks off

Public shelters began to spring up everywhere from schools to office blocks, after the federal government injected some $207 million into the effort. The September 1961 edition of the magazine Life featured a cover story titled 'You Can Protect Yourself From Nuclear Attack.'

It featured alongside a letter from President Kennedy optimistically claiming that 97% of the population could use shelters to survive. Viable bunkers had to have thick and sturdy walls to survive nuclear fallout, plus a supply store of non-perishable food items and first aid kits.

Protecting families

On the urging of the federal government, private nuclear bunkers were also commonly set up in family homes. The one in this photo belonged to a couple in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the 1950s – the hulking bunker was freestanding and made of steel. Its main role was to protect against the lethal radiation that would follow a nuclear attack, rather than the blast itself.

Kennedy takes his own advice

Kennedy followed his own guidelines too. In an effort to protect his family and staff, the late president built a pair of bunkers in two carefully chosen locations in the east of the country. Both of these shelters remain today.

A New England retreat

The Massachusetts town of Hyannis Port, on Cape Cod, was special to the Kennedys. The president would routinely whisk his family away to this coastal bolthole as a reprieve from the world of politics, and their elegant estate here became known as the 'Summer White House.' The president is pictured here with his wife Jackie, née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

Family tradition

JFK’s parents (Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy) purchased the summer cottage in the 1920s. The estate eventually grew to six acres and included three houses – JFK would use the compound as a base for his successful 1960 presidential campaign. A young Kennedy (left) smiles alongside his brothers Robert and Ted in this nostalgic snap.

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A presidential safe haven

The president and his administration recognized that the Cape Cod retreat was a very exposed location in the event of a nuclear attack, so it was decided that a nuclear bunker should be built in the surrounding area. The chosen site was the Tom Nevers Naval Facility (pictured from above) on Nantucket island, a minuscule islet around 30 miles south of the cape. 

The Nantucket bunker

The bunker was built in 1962 and had space for up to 30 people. Should disaster strike, it was planned that a helicopter or submarine would spirit JFK (and any colleagues or family members present with him) away to the facility for protection.

Inside the bunker

Work was quick: the bunker, which was made up of prefabricated Quonset huts (popular at the time) was built within two weeks, and was based on shelters that had survived nuclear testing.

It was centered on a long passageway, which branched off into a gathering space, a mechanical room, and a room with showers for decontaminating in the event of nuclear fallout. 

Inside the bunker

As it goes, JFK never had reason to set foot in the bunker and it's had various uses over the years, including as a storage unit for Nantucket’s county fair and as a clubhouse for the Nantucket Hunting Association. Unfortunately, it was also the target of vandalism in 2021, with the hulking steel door pulled from its frame by a vehicle.

The future of the bunker

Despite the damage, the interior of the bunker remains intact, and it's now under consideration to be designated as a National Historic Landmark. There have been calls to fully restore the bunker to its 1962 state, but it's also thought to be in a possible coastal erosion zone, meaning that eventually the relic could be lost to Mother Nature.

A Palm Beach retreat

The Nantucket bunker wasn’t the only one built for JFK. The president also owned a vacation home in Florida’s Palm Beach, and that too was pinpointed as a potential target for nuclear attack.

A bunker was subsequently built on Palm Beach County’s Peanut Island – a 79-acre artificial island reached today by a 20-minute ferry from the mainland. Pictured here is the coast guard station on the island. 

The Palm Beach shelter is built

Like the Nantucket bunker, this Palm Beach shelter, built in 1961, was fortunately never needed by JFK. From 1998 to 2017, the bunker was managed by the Palm Beach Maritime Museum and was open to the public for tours. The entryway is pictured here in 2009.

Inside the Palm Beach bunker

The museum spanned six acres across Peanut Island, and allowed the public to explore JFK's historic bunker. Inside, history fans could see relics such as this old radio and vintage telephone. 

Inside the Palm Beach bunker

A highlight of the museum was this presidential desk, set up within the historic bunker. Should the threat of a nuclear attack be realized, the president could have continued with some of his duties from here.

Inside the Palm Beach bunker

Other displays included these old sanitation items, ranging from a waterless hand cleaner to deodorant. Despite the popularity of the museum there were fears over the safety of the site, as the bunker became more and more decrepit. The museum was eventually shuttered and, as it stands, the bunker needs millions of dollars in repairs.

Future of the Palm Beach bunker

The bunker’s future is uncertain. There’s interest in making it a National Historic Landmark, but repairs will be expensive. While there are plans to reopen it as a museum, there’s no clear timeline and it remains closed for now.

Fascinating images from the Cold War: how the world prepared for nuclear oblivion

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