To answer your other question, there were plans in place to evacuate most of the capital via rail behind the Rockies as well. The Soviets did this tactic for real during the German invasion and were quite successful at it.
Thanks for the link. I find these mostly untaught tidbits of what the US did domestically during the war very interesting. War bonds, rationing, scrap metal drives etc. The contrast with today's "war effort" is mind boggling. Current "war efforts" include tax cuts. It's so 1984ish to me. We've always been at war with...
To have a real “war effort,” in a democracy you need a population that strongly supports the war. Otherwise you get voted out and replaced with leaders who will seek peace.
You’d hope the outcome would be that unpopular wars are avoided, but it seems that the real outcome is only that big ones are. Our leaders have discovered that small wars that don’t require major sacrifices from the general population can be highly unpopular and it just doesn’t matter.
The Corporation : A Centennial Biography of United States Steel Corporation, 1901-2001 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1887969128/
To answer your other question, there were plans in place to evacuate most of the capital via rail behind the Rockies as well. The Soviets did this tactic for real during the German invasion and were quite successful at it.