America's Secret Presidents-In-Waiting

During the height of the Cold War, each and every day presented the possibility that a devastating nuclear strike would decapitate the nation by destroying the institutions of governance in Washington, D.C., along with all the occupants thereof.

To preserve continuity of government, the Reagan Administration drafted and put into practice a highly classified procedure under which three separate Executive teams were dispersed far and wide throughout the country in times of utter peril. Each team was to include one person who would be President.

Included in such exercises were none other than Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

The outline of the plan was simple. Once the United States was (or believed itself about to be under nuclear attack, three teams would be sent from Washington to three different locations around the United States. Each team would be prepared to assume leadership of the country, and would include a Cabinet member who was prepared to become President. If the Soviet Union were somehow to locate one of the teams and hit it with a nuclear weapon, the second team or, if necessary, the third could take over. This was not some abstract textbook plan; it was practiced in concrete and elaborate detail. Each team was named for a color-"red" or "blue," for example-and each had an experienced executive who could operate as a new White House chief of staff.

From: Article.