Reply #2: Oh, I remember all too well

[htuttle]

And all those presidential directives are still on the books. I wrote some articles about that at the time for an alternative news publication.

In a nutshell, Reagan took the Kennedy-era 'doomsday' plans designed to be used in case of nuclear war, and expanded the conditions under which they would be used to include things like a 'breakdown of civilian law enforcement'. In other words, martial law at any time, since the conditions were now so open ended, they could easily be satisifed.