Sea Power and Maritime
Affairs
Lesson 14: The US Navy in the Strategy of
Containment, 1953-1963
Learning Objectives

Comprehend the development of new strategies and
weapons systems, in terms of competition for
resources within the DOD and within the Navy,
during in the height of the Cold War.
 “Massive Retaliation,” “Rollback,” and
“Liberation” will be defined and their applicability
as strategic slogans will be assessed by examination
of major crises of the Eisenhower Presidency.
 Comprehend how the threat of limited naval
presence was used to influence international affairs
during the 1950s.
Learning Objectives
 President
Kennedy's “Flexible response” will
be defined and its applicability as a strategic
slogan will be assessed by examination of the
Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
 Know
the impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis
of 1962 on US naval strategy and national
policy.
NSC 68: Blueprint for Cold War
Strategy

National Security Council Report - April 1950
– Based on the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and
George Kennan’s “Containment Strategy”.

Threat from Soviet Union:
– Leads the global advance of international communism.

Korean War - National Security Council believes
the perception of the communist threat is
confirmed.
NSC 68

NSC 68: “We must, by means of a rapid and
sustained build-up of the political, economic, and
military strength of the free world, and by means
of an affirmative program intended to wrest the
initiative from the Soviet Union, confront it with
convincing evidence of the determination and
ability of the free world to frustrate the Kremlin
design of a world dominated by its will.”

Naval decline reversed.
– Accelerated shipbuilding.
– Personnel strength doubled.
Korean War
Navy

Reactivation of mothballed World War II ships.
 Development begins on a new generation of ships:
– Forrestal-class carriers with jet aircraft.
– Nuclear-powered submarines: USS Nautilus.

Power-projection capabilities of the U.S. Navy.
–
–
–
–

Close Air Support
Interdiction
Amphibious Operations
Logistics
Strategic bombing/massive retaliation theory disproved.
USS Nautilus (SSN 571)

Commissioned September 1954.
 First nuclear-powered submarine.
 First submarine to cruise under the North Pole.
President
Dwight D.
Eisenhower

Elected 1952

Administration
increases
military
funding after
the Korean
War.
Struggle for Funding

Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) - 1946
– Controls U.S. strategic deterrence mission.

Navy funding determines nature and mission of forces.
 Naval nuclear capability and strategic mission developed.
– Ensures future funding for naval forces.
– Internal Navy competition for funding.
 Elimination of new weapons except carriers and submarines.
– Small carrier-based nuclear weapons.
 New tactical nuclear mission in addition to strategic mission.

Single Integrated Operations Plan (SIOP) - 1960.
– Attack plans for strategic bombers, ICBMs, and SSBNs.
– Carriers lose strategic role - maintain tactical nuclear weapon.
Regulus Missile
- Program cancelled by 1964.
Forrestal-class Attack Carrier
(CVA)
USS Forrestal (CVA 59)
Ballistic Missile Submarines
(SSBNs)
USS George Washington (SSBN-598)
Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW)

Soviet submarine threatens U.S. and NATO sea lines of
communication.
 Hunter Killer Groups (HUKs) established.
– One older fixed-wing support carrier (CVS) with aircraft.
– Five to six destroyers (DDs)

U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs).
– Most effective ASW weapons eventually replace HUKs.
– “Albacore” hulls and improved sonar and torpedoes.

Long-range land-based maritime patrol aircraft.
 Underwater Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS).
– Passive sonar located at strategic chokepoints.

GIUK Gap - main chokepoint for Soviet submarines.
U.S. Naval Presence in the Cold
War

Worldwide U.S. interests.
– Strategy of containment must be backed by threat of force.
– Naval deployments - worldwide.



Influence international affairs.
Threat of either limited or unlimited naval force.
Numbered fleets deployed in different regions.
–
–
–
–
–
Second Fleet
Third Fleet
Sixth Fleet
Seventh Fleet
Fifth Fleet
Atlantic
Eastern Pacific
Mediterranean
Western Pacific and Indian Ocean
Arabian Gulf (1995)
Forward Deployed Forces

Navy
Containment Strategy
– Naples (Gaeta), Italy

Commander, Sixth Fleet
– Yokosuka, Japan

Commander, Seventh Fleet
– Subic Bay, Philippines

Marine Corps
– Okinawa


Third Marine Division
Army and Air Force
– Permanent bases established overseas.

Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
Admiral
Arleigh Burke
Chief
of
Naval Operations
1955-1961
Admiral
Hyman G.
Rickover
Father of the Nuclear Navy
and
Naval Reactors
USS Nautilus (SSN 571)
USS Enterprise (CVAN 65)
USS Long Beach (CGN 9)

Former French colony.
Indochina
– Japanese occupation - WW II.

1945: Ho Chi Minh founds Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
– Communist government.
– Reoccupied by French forces.

1947: Vietnamese war for independence begins.
– Vietnamese rural population supports Vietminh communists
while French control cities.

France appeals to U.S. for support.
– Truman approves military aid to French forces.

1954: Dien Bien Phu - French surrender to Vietminh.
– Eisenhower refuses to aid French with carrier strikes.
– Operation “Passage to Freedom”
– SEATO established

Vietnam divided between communist North and South.
– U.S. military advisors to South Vietnam.
Suez Crisis

1956: Egyptian President Nasser nationalizes Suez Canal.
 Britain and France
– Attacks on Egypt with Israel to regain control of canal.

Soviet Union - aligned with Egypt.
– Hungarian uprising.
– Naval inferiority to U.S. fleet.

U.S. diplomatic pressure on Britain, France, and Israel.
– U.S. controls sea lines of communication in Mediterranean.
– U.N. cease-fire brokered.
– Soviets begin to increase power in Middle East.

Eisenhower Doctrine - 1957
– U.S. will defend Middle East from Communist aggression.
Lebanon Crisis

1957: Soviets launch “Sputnik” shaking U.S.
confidence

1958: Lebanese Civil War

Communists supported by Syria.


Ally of Soviet Union.
Amphibious Landing of 6,000 Marines.
– Control of Beirut secured.

Army and Air Force units unable to react.
– Demonstrated flexibility of U.S. naval forces.

Sixth Fleet dominates the Mediterranean.
– Soviet Navy unable to influence events.
The George Washington, launched June 9, 1959, was the Navy's 1st submarine in
Nov. 1960 to deploy the solid-fuel Polaris missile with one-megaton warhead
Polaris
SubmarineLaunched
Ballistic Missiles
(SLBMs)

Strategic Deterrence
 Nuclear Triad
– With strategic bombers
and ICBMs.

Eventually replaced by
Poseidon and Trident
missiles on newer
submarines.
First Nuclear powered carrier
commissioned (CVAN 65)
Enterprise
John
Fitzgerald
Kennedy

Elected President over
Eisenhower’s Vice
President Richard Nixon in
1960.
 Navy PT boat commander
in WW II as a Lieutenant.
Nikita Khrushchev

Succeeded Stalin as Soviet
premier after his death in 1953.

Proposed “peaceful competition”
between the superpowers.
– Challenged U.S. to meet
Communist challenges in third
world countries.
The Cold War Heats
 The “Space Race”:
Up
– Sputnik: First man-made satellite - 1957.
– Yuri Gagarin - First man in space - 1961.
– Kennedy - Apollo Program will land a man on the moon “before
the decade is out.”

Naval aviators chosen among first astronauts.
The “Missile Gap” debate in 1960 U.S. Presidential
election.
 U-2 Incident - 1960

– Francis Gary Powers shot down over Soviet Union.
Khrushchev's “We will bury you!” speech at the United
Nations - 1960.
 Berlin Wall - 1961:

– Kennedy: “Ich bin ein Berliner.” - 1963.
U-2
Fidel Castro

Leader of Cuban
Revolution against U.S.supported President
Batista in 1959.
 Establishes Communist
government aligned
with the Soviet Union.
Castro
and
Khrushchev
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban
Missile
Crisis
October
1962
Cuban Missile Crisis

1961 - “Bay of Pigs” Invasion:
– CIA-trained Cuban rebels landed by U.S. Navy.
– Defeated by Castro’s communists.

1962: Soviet nuclear missiles move to Cuba.
– Located by Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane.

Options for President Kennedy:
– Air strikes or invasion too risky - may start war.
– Blockade or “Quarantine” of missiles established by Navy.


22 Oct 62- fleet directed to block military shipments from Cuba.
24 Oct 62- Soviet Ships reverse course, only one boarded
– Khrushchev agrees to remove missiles.
Cuban Missile Crisis






“Conventional engagement”—involving small ships
No attack carriers directly involved, but global U.S. alert
including carriers world-wide
Soviet had no symmetrical, opposing forces
No fleet action; no hostilities
Khrushchev and Kennedy played crucial roles!
Soviet naval policy reviewed.
– Need a more balanced Navy of surface, subsurface, and air
forces to challenge U.S. for command of the seas.
Discussion
Next time: The US Navy, Vietnam and Limited War,
1964-1975