The Cold War was a tumultuous period in history, with the threat of nuclear armageddon looming large for decades. As a result, across the United States sturdy bunkers were constructed 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.
On the anniversary of the president's tragic assassination, we reveal the fascinating story of JFK's Cold War bunkers, which may soon be designated as National Historic Landmarks...
Tension and rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union – an unlikely ally of the United States during the Second World War – 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.
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 characterised 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 pocket books like the one pictured were commonplace.
A defining moment came more than a decade after the Second World War 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 then-US president Dwight D Eisenhower to a "peaceful rocket contest", further fuelling fears about impending nuclear war.
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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 programme was rolled out, meant to reassure and protect citizens from nuclear disaster. The president is pictured here talking with Khrushchev.
Public shelters began to spring up everywhere from schools to office blocks, after the federal government injected some $207 million (£177m) into the effort. The September 1961 edition of the magazine Life featured a cover story titled 'You Can Protect Yourself From Nuclear Attack', 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.
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 sturdy steel. Its main role was to protect against the dangerous radiation that would follow a nuclear attack, rather than the blast itself.
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.
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.
JFK’s parents (Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy) had holidayed here before him, and purchased the summer cottage in the 1920s. The estate eventually grew to be six acres and include three houses, and 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.
The president and his administration recognised 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 (48km) south of the cape.
The bunker was built in 1962 and, at around 1,900 square feet (177sqm), 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.
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 centred 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.
As it goes, JFK never had reason to set foot in the bunker and it's had various different 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.
Despite the damage, the interior of the bunker remains intact, and it's now in the running 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.
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.
Like the Nantucket bunker, this Palm Beach shelter was also built in 1962 and was never used by JFK. It would later be protected as part of the island’s Palm Beach Maritime Museum, between 1992 and 2017. The entryway is pictured here in 2009.
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.
A highlight of the museum displays was this presidential desk, set up within the historic bunker. Should the threat of a nuclear attack be realised, the president could have continued with some of his duties from here.
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 over time. The museum was eventually shuttered and, as it stands, the bunker needs millions of dollars of repairs.
However, the future of the bunker looks bright. Calls to protect it as a National Historic Landmark have renewed interest in the site, on which the Port of Palm Beach has just renewed a lease. There are plans afoot to carry out the costly repair work in the hopes of reopening it to the public as a museum in the coming years.
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