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- <text id=92TT1770>
- <title>
- Aug. 10, 1992: From the Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Aug. 10, 1992 The Doomsday Plan
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
- </hdr><body>
- <p> As the Soviet Union recedes into history, the threat of
- global thermonuclear warfare is waning considerably. But we are
- just beginning to learn some of the secrets of that cold war era
- when the two superpowers were locked in a state of high alert.
- This week correspondent Ted Gup advances our understanding
- greatly with a cover story focusing on the Federal Government's
- grand plan to preserve post-apocalypse control. As Ted reports,
- planning went far beyond contingencies to shelter top-level
- bureaucrats and ensure the survival of the U.S. government. It
- also included plans to rescue the nation's cultural heritage,
- from Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci to the Declaration
- of Independence.
- </p>
- <p> For Gup, 41, interest in this alarming story can be traced
- back to his childhood in Canton, Ohio. "I've been fascinated
- with this subject ever since grade school. I remember the
- drills where we cowered under our desks as we prepared for the
- big one," he says. ``My generation was shaped by the Bomb. In
- a way, I've been reporting this story for decades." In the
- interim, though, Ted made his mark in journalism. He joined TIME
- in 1987 after serving eight years on the investigative staff at
- the Washington Post, where his work won a Pulitzer nomination,
- a George Polk Award, the Gerald Loeb Award and the Worth
- Bingham Prize. Since bringing his energies to TIME, he has
- chronicled the illegal trade in elephant ivory, brought
- attention to the endangered spotted owl, documented corruption
- in college basketball and scrutinized the plight of West
- Virginia coal miners.
- </p>
- <p> The doomsday government story required Gup to dig even
- deeper. "I ate a lot of dust," he says, while sifting through
- reams of official archives. He unearthed documents about how
- Washington planned to protect the Bill of Rights and the
- Constitution. During the reporting, Ted thought frequently of
- his two toddler sons David and Matthew. "I pray that they won't
- have to grow up under a cloud of anxiety and that all of this
- will seem exotic and far away to them."
- </p>
- <p> U.S. athletes weren't the only ones piling up the medals
- in Barcelona. TIME's art critic Robert Hughes also excelled
- when he was awarded the first prize for literature in the
- Olimpiada Cultural. In a ceremony at the Palacio de la Zarzuela,
- Hughes was honored by the government of Catalonia for his book
- Barcelona. The prize, which was presented by King Juan Carlos
- and Queen Sofia of Spain, included a bronze Miro trophy.
- </p>
- <p>-- Elizabeth P. Valk
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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