Junior officers created CONPLAN 8888 in 2011 as part of a training exercise, and the elaborate plan details different types of zombies, ways the U.S. government could react to an outbreak, and even the Constitutional rights of the undead.
Public DomainThe opening page of the CONPLAN 8888 document.
“This plan was not actually designed as a joke,” reads the opening line of CONPLAN 8888. “Zombies are horribly dangerous to all human life and zombie infections have the potential to seriously undermine national security and economic activities that sustain our way of life. Therefore having a population that is not composed of zombies or at risk from their malign influence is vital to U.S. and Allied national interests.”
This rather obvious summation of the threat posed by the living dead doesn’t come from a horror movie script or a panicked blog post. It’s taken directly from the pages of a very real document drafted by the U.S. Strategic Command. Formally titled “Counter-Zombie Dominance,” the unclassified report details exactly how government agencies would respond to a full-scale zombie outbreak.
Yes, the U.S. government drafted an official zombie preparation plan. There’s no need to start building a bunker, though. CONPLAN 8888 was written by junior officers as part of a training exercise in 2011, and the threat it discusses is entirely theoretical.
For now, at least.
The Origins Of CONPLAN 8888
CONPLAN 8888 is the work of military officers training at the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. As one of the Department of Defense’s unified combatant commands, USSTRATCOM is responsible for nuclear deterrence and global strike operations. And, apparently, zombie defense.
Public DomainZombies as depicted in the 1968 George Romero film Night of the Living Dead.
Made public thanks to a report by Foreign Policy in 2014, the document serves as a comprehensive outline of what must be done if the sort of apocalypse depicted in The Walking Dead or World War Z were to occur in reality.
While the premise may seem absurd, the execution is deadly serious, providing detailed explanations of the legal, political, and logistical hurdles involved in a total war against the undead.
The Government’s Strategy For Combating The Living Dead
One of the key advantages the military possesses in a zombie war is the immediate relaxation of the rules of engagement. As the report notes, “U.S. and international law regulate military operations only insofar as human and animal life are concerned. There are almost no restrictions on hostile actions… against pathogenic life forms, organic-robotic entities, or ‘traditional’ zombies.” This allows for a “kill-on-sight” policy without the burden of the Geneva Convention.
To execute this, CONPLAN 8888 outlines a specific military narrative that moves through six distinct phases.
It begins with “Shape” and “Deter,” a period in which the government monitors the environment for zombie-inducing events. The authors did acknowledge that zombies cannot be deterred themselves. Instead, the goal is to deter other adversaries from taking advantage of the chaos while restoring public confidence in the government.
AMCOne of the zombies from the Walking Dead series.
From there, the plan escalates to “Seize Initiative” and “Dominate.” These are the active combat phases in which military forces conduct sweeping operations to secure infected areas. The instructions are blunt: Forces must neutralize the threat by killing zombies and burning the bodies to completely remove the vector of infection.
Once the hordes are thinned, the military pivots to “Stabilize,” rooting out remaining pockets of resistance, before finally moving to “Restore Civil Authority,” handing control back to civilian agencies to rebuild a shattered society.
And operations like this wouldn’t only be conducted domestically, according to CONPLAN 8888. The report also expects that there would be a global element to any zombie outbreak, which means that the U.S. will plan to coordinate attacks on international zombies in order to protect its foreign allies — and enemies.
As the report states, “Because zombies pose a threat to all ‘non-zombie’ human life (hereafter referred to as ‘humans’), USSTRATCOM will be prepared to preserve the sanctity of human life and conduct operations in support of any human population — including traditional adversaries.”
In addition, the document notes, “To avoid ambiguity with nuclear armed peers such as Russia and [China], USSTRATCOM will conduct confidence-building measures to ensure leaders within these nations do not construe USSTRATCOM preparations to counter zombie-dominance as preparations for war.”
Run-of-the-mill zombies and nuclear bombs may not be the only threats during such an event, however.
A Bestiary Of Undead Enemies
From its international scope to its multi-phase attack plan, CONPLAN 8888 is remarkably thorough. It also covers every conceivable type of zombie.
The report primarily focuses on Pathogenic Zombies, the classic movie monsters created by a contagion. But the planners also prepared for the bizarre.
They drafted contingencies for Radiation Zombies, Evil Magic Zombies born from “occult experimentation,” and Space Zombies created by alien toxins. They even included “Vegetarian Zombies” (VZs), a direct nod to the popular game Plants vs. Zombies, noting that while they pose little danger to humans, they could threaten the nation’s food supply: “Although VZs do not attack humans or other animal life, they will consume all plant life in front of them. They can cause massive de-forestation or elimination of basic food crops essential to humans (rice, corn, soybeans).”
EAA screenshot from the popular mobile game Plants vs. Zombies.
The report even makes special mention of Chicken Zombies, which it notes are the only kind that have actually been proven to exist, per a 2006 report by the Associated Press. These are chickens that have been euthanized by being sealed inside chambers and suffocated with carbon dioxide — only to survive and claw their way back out of the grave.
While CONPLAN 8888 admits these creatures are “simply terrifying to behold,” it ultimately categorizes them as a nuisance rather than a strategic threat. And despite the fact that these “Chicken Zombies” do exist, their inclusion in CONPLAN 8888 in the first place is a fairly solid indication that the plan wasn’t devised completely in earnest.
Why Does CONPLAN 8888 Exist?
If the Pentagon doesn’t actually believe the dead are rising, why spend tax dollars writing this?
According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Strategic Command, “The document is identified as a training tool used in an in-house training exercise where students learn about the basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario.”
In other words, CONPLAN 8888 is basically a training exercise featuring a fictitious enemy rather than an actual plan that its authors would envision using in the field. It is, essentially, a way to teach dry, complex military planning without boring students to death.
Sony PicturesA zombie from Danny Boyle’s 2025 film 28 Years Later.
But there is a second, more diplomatic reason for plotting against zombies. The U.S. constantly plans for national security threats. However, if a training plan leaked that detailed a hypothetical U.S. invasion of a real country — say, Brazil or Canada — it could create a diplomatic nightmare.
By using a “fictitious adversary” like zombies, planners can practice the real mechanics of warfare — marshaling resources, declaring martial law, and coordinating with FEMA — without risking damage to foreign relations. It allows planners to think outside the box regarding civil collapse without offending any global allies.
So, while it always pays to be prepared, you can rest easy in the knowledge that the U.S. government isn’t seriously expecting a zombie apocalypse — at least, not as far as we know.
After this look at CONPLAN 8888, check out the most interesting facts about zombies. Then, discover the chilling truth about cordyceps, the infection that causes a zombie outbreak in The Last of Us.
