This is a modified version of a presentation I did for the 2014 Society for History in the Federal Government conference in April. This version focuses on the legal usefulness, in environmental cases, of the official agency histories and records concerning U.S. industrial mobilization for war and defense during World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War. Environmental law practitioners are often involved in retroactive liability settings, such as CERCLA matters, where one must show that the U.S. government or other parties exercised substantial control over certain industrial facilities and therefore should bear all or a portion of related environmental remediation costs. This presentation introduces the highly useful official histories of industrial mobilization in WWII and the Korean War, as well as the equally valuable, surviving civilian agency records held at the National Archives.
Download a PDF version of the presentation.
Presented by: Mike Reis, Director of Litigation Research
Originally presented at the Society for History in the Federal Government Annual Conference, April 4-5, 2014, at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, Shepherdstown, WV.