The New Imperial Navy
Klare, Michael T.
With the Indochina conflict apparently on the verge of settlement, America's military establishment finds itself at a "strategic crossroads" with many key decisions pending on the...
...Unlike all other vessels, the SES does not have a hull to obtain bouyancy but rather it "hovers" above the surface of the water on a cushion of compressed air.* (Even the hydrofoil requires a conventional hull for Artist's concept of General Purpose Amphibious Auoult Ship Patrol Hydrofoil Missile Boat (PHM): After spending ten years on studies and tests of hydrofoil patrol boats, the Navy decided in 1972 to go ahead with procurement of an operational hydrofoil combat ship--the Patrol Hydrofoil Missile Boat...
...and its India50Ocean fleet usually consists of 12-16 vessels...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, April, 1972, pp...
...For Washington, it would mean a major political and psychological defeat, which would have grave repercu gions on America's posture throughout the world...
...6 2 These new basing arrangements are designed to improve the fighting capability of the Sixth Fleet by increasing the time spent by warships "on station" in the Mediterranean (previously, Sixth Fleet vessels had to return to Norfolk, Va...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Political and Strategic Implications of Homeporting in Greece, Hearings, 92nd Cong., 2d Sess., 1972...
...Kidd, "View from the Bridge," p. 19...
...The potential for coercion of the U.S., with or *Since the new oil discoveries have aroused much attention, it is worth comparing their potential value to that of the Middle East reserves...
...1,272.7 94.5 Turkey...
...1,693.7 489.1 Pakistan...
...U.S...
...5 4 Despite this harrassment, the Pentagon is going ahead with plans to upgrade the Middle East Force: at least one of its two aging destroyers will be replaced by a new vessel--perhaps a missile-armed Spruance-class destroyer--while the MEF's flagship will be replaced by a modern amphibious transport ship, the 14,000-ton LaSalle...
...Foreign Policy in the 1970's (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970), pp...
...Robert C. McFarlane, "At Sea--Where We Belong," U.S...
...foreign policy establishment has discarded tne notion that every gain in Communist strength is necessarily inimical to U.S...
...air and naval power whenever a client is unable to provide for its own defense...
...Millar of the Australian Institute of International Affairs observed in 1970 that, "Although it has occasioned a good deal of comment, some highly exaggerated, the Soviet Navy has not yet been out in strength in the Indian Ocean...
...News & World Report, September 11, 1972, p. 43...
...The Soviet Union, unencumbered by a costly land war in Asia, has been able to channel most of its Defense funds into the acquisition of new military hardware, including advanced ICBM's (submarine-launched ballistic missiles), and--for the first time in Russian history--a substantial "salt water" naval fleet that is considered a major threat to U.S./NATO hegemony in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia...
...3 6 American concern with the Soviet buildup in the Mediterranean/Indian Ocean area is entirely predictable: the United States and its allies have vital economic, political and strategic interests in the Middle East that would be gravely jeopardized if it were to fall under the domination of a hostile power...
...Current plans call for a 3,400-ton, 420-foot vessel carrying antiship and antiaircraft missiles, as well as torpedoes and a light LAMPS helicopter for ASW patrol duties...
...Although numerically and qualitatively inferior to the NATO forces in the area, the USSR's Mediterranean fleet has significantly altered the balance of power in the Middle East and challenged the West's continued hegemony in the entire region...
...According to Admiral Zumwalt, "we have the mission of manifesting an overseas presence sufficiently powerful and visible to make plain to any possible adversary, as well as to our allies, that any effort to challenge our vital overseas interests or those of our allies could bring confrontation with American armed might...
...CInclude Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia.- 16 -- 17 - American military presence), while the Athens agreement is still being negotiated (it, too, has come under fire in Europe, where there is much opposition to the Greek military regime...
...James D. Hessman, "Tomorrow's Navy: Fast, Powerful, and Outnumbered," Sea Power, October, 1972, pp...
...Senate, Comm...
...monolithic one...
...Navy have gone so far as to create a "naval gap," similar to the "bomber gap" of the 1950's and the equally ficticious "missile gap" of the 1960's, to drum up support for increased appropriations...
...4. Turner, "Strategic Crossroads," p. 21...
...Throughout most of the Cold War era, we shared world power with only one other nation--the Soviet Union--and most international crises were defined in terms of the great EastWest rivalry...
...They are surging forward with a naval and maritime program that is a technological marvel...
...Turner, "Strategic Crossroads," p. 20...
...Unless we accelerate the modernization of our fleet, Moorer warned, "the Soviets will increasingly challenge our control of the seas in those maritime regions essential to the success of our forward defense strategy, as well as in ocean areas closer to our shores...
...Zumwalt's extraordinary attack on racism can be seen, then, as a desperate move to overcome the "people problems" inherent in a high-technology, capital-intensive strategy...
...64 These unique characteristics of sea power have led many analysts to conclude that, in the pentapolar world of the 1970's and 80's, the Navy will be the dominant service and will claim an increasing share of the Defense budget...
...149 155 SUBMARINES, Total...
...Includes: Military Assistance Program grant aid...
...Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmament, 1972, pp...
...Japan is fully capable of producing nuclear weapons, and has the economic base to handle any military contingency short of a major land war in Asia...
...395-9...
...If the voices of the New Left, the Black Panthers and their odd bedfellows prevail, both Vietnam and the'Middle East will be abandoned...
...3 3 The acquisition of new warships is the most visible expression of the U.S...
...The Diego Garcia installation--America's first in the Indian Ocean proper--will house a communications ation, an airstrip, and naval docking facilities...
...From a Georgetown University study quoted in The New York Times, January 19, 1969, 39...
...Adm...
...As an island nation," he concluded, "we cannot rationally engage in commerce, honor treaties or deploy forces overseas without the protection of a strong Navy...
...military strategy in the Post-Vietnam era leads inescapably to the conclusion that the Pentagon will be obliged to give high priority to the development of strong naval forces...
...THE INDIAN OCEAN/MEDITERRANEAN AREA: NEWEST ARENA FOR NAVAL CONFRONTATION For centuries, the Mediterranean was a "Western lake," and the Indean Ocean and Persian Gulf were under the secure control of Western navies...
...5 8 The United States has also expanded its naval facilities at Sigonella in Sicily, and increased its payments to NATO in order to insure continued Western access to the British bases on Malta...
...and, Donald V. Cox, "The Sea Control Ship System," U.S...
...That is where the confrontation is that is where our readiness will be measured...
...246 222 Aircraft carriers...
...Nevertheless, the changing conditions of naval warfare, the dectining size of our fleet, and the rising cost of big ships make it essential that we deploy fast, heavily-armed small combat vessels...
...Table 2: US/USSR NAVAL FORCES COMPARISONa (As of February, 1972) U.S...
...Many analysts, in fact, are predicting that the Navy will be the preeminent force of the next quarter century, and that it will be delegated the chief responsibility for protection of America's growing interests abroad...
...In only slightly more moderate tones, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1972 that: "The continuing growth of Soviet naval capabilities relative to our own is a matter of increasing concern to the Joint Chiefs of Staff...
...Furthermore, we must recognize that--unless we are willing to employ nuclear weapons in defense of any government or territory deemed vital to U.S...
...and, Wynn V. Whidden, "The Case for the Carrier," U.S...
...0 25 Nuclear attack submarines...
...15-26...
...The Arabian Peninsula...
...On Italian agreement, see The New York Times, October 2, 1972...
...By this physical reality and the resulting psychological fears, the Soviets are trying to imply the isolation of the flank members-Norway and Iceland 4 4 Turkey and Greece-- from NATO's main body...
...and the Merchant Marine to provide the essential ability to bring to bear and support indefinitely U.S...
...It is clear, from the discussion above, that henceforth American military forces will be deployed with a great deal more restraint and caution than ever before...
...credit extended for arms purchases under the Foreign Military Sales program...
...objectives in the post-Vietnam era, American naval strength is now at its lowest point since the outbreak of the Korean War...
...Europe must also expand its trade with this area to insure success of the Common Market and to prevent a slowdown in economic growth...
...naval strategy today, it is worth quoting from his Fiscal 1973 budget presentation at length: "The aircraft carrier has at least three very critical missions...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, July, 1971, pp...
...Hanson Baldwin, former Military Editor of The New York Times, wrote in 1971 that: "The proven reserves of crude oil in the Middle East and in the Moslem countries of North Africa...
...It is no accident," suggests Brooke Nihart of Armed Forces Journal, "that the aerospace industry, not the shipbuilders, have been building hydrofoils and SES's...
...Admiral Turner contributed the observation that "Without firing a shot, [the Soviet Union] hopes to pressure 4 hese flank NATO nations into 'Finlandization.'" Although most analysts agree that the intrinsic strategic importance of NATO's "southern flank" has declined in recent years (through the development of ICBM's, missile-armed submarines, and supertankers that can bypass the Suez Canal), there is general agreement that its loss to the Soviets would create a grave imbalance in the world power equation...
...bSome Soviet cruisers are smaller than U.S...
...and, J. K. Holloway, Jr., "The Post-Vietnam Navy: Rhetoric and Realities," U.S...
...The significance of the Soviet vessels lies less in their quantity than in their novelty...
...support...
...6,945 Attack and fighter (A-4, A-6, A-7, F-4...
...To do this requires that we have the capability to control and use the sea lines of communication to the area of interest...
...Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Gulf: Implications of British Withdrawal, quoted in The New York Times, January 19, 1969, and in The Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1969...
...Navy is Setting Up a 'Home Port' in Greece," U.S...
...Zumwalt, "FY 1973 Posture," p. 20...
...See also, Burrell and Cottrell,'Iran...
...MILITARY ASSISTANCE DELIVERIES TO FAVORED RECIPIENTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION, 1946-1973: [By Fiscal Year...
...interests than alternative strategies requiring an American military intervention--particularly if the Communists can be persuaded to forsake potential gains in other areas deemed more critical to U.S...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, April, 1972, pp...
...Quoted in Congressional Record, May 25, 1972, p. S8422...
...world strategy based on these fundamental principles: 1. The United States will gradually withdraw most of its garrison troops stationed overseas, including those in Western Europe, while expanding its capability to redeploy U.S.-based troops to distant locations in a crisis situation...
...It has and will continue to be, in many cases, as in Vietnam in the beginning, the only way we can bring air support to allies in need...
...Besides their giant underwater force, the Soviets have an expanded surface navy...
...Elmo R. Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations During this very period, as the American Navy is declining in strength, the Soviet Union is devoting considerable resources to the expansion of its navy...
...The primary importance of the Mediterranean today," according to Robert A. Kilmarx and Alvin J. Cottrell of the Georgetown Center, "is that the Soviet Union has chosen to make it the major arena for contemporary political advance against the interests of the West, in order to forge new correlations of power in the world...
...The current buildup of U.S...
...What is needed, in the view of most Pentagon strategists, are highly mobile, self-sufficient expeditionary forces that can be deployed quickly in an emergency, play a decisive role in a short space of time, and then be withdrawn from the battlefield before public opposition has a chance to develop...
...Hanson W. Baldwin, "The Stakes are Oil," Army, August, 1971, pp...
...Robert L. Sikes of Florida told the House of Representatives in 1971 that the U.S...
...24-5...
...24-7...
...94701...
...As for the Soviet challenge in the Indian Ocean, T.B...
...Some experts predict that we will have to import 20 to 25 percent 3 f our oil supply from the Persian Gulf by 1985...
...George W. Ashworth, "The $50 Billion Navy Building Program," Sea Power, October, 1971, pp...
...6 3 As new amphibious assault ships (LHA's), missile-armed hydrofoil patrol boats (PHM's), and other new types of warships become available, they will be rushed to the Mediterranean to upgrade the capability of our fleet and the Marine amphibious force assigned to the region...
...Ibid., pp...
...In order to assure unhampered access to this immense wealth--which helped finance the industrialization of Western Europe--England and its allies maintained a significant naval presence throughout the area and had troops available at all times for the defense of client monarchies and sheikdoms...
...On the basis of this data, Baldwin concluded that "there is really no other source of power that can take the place, during the next 10 to 15 years (some say for the rest of the century), of Middle East oil...
...Third, the carrier provides peacetime presence...
...This is so not only because we are shifting our overseas military apparatus from land bases to seaborne bases, or because our potential enemies are building up their navies, but because the United State Gov-- 18 - Footnotes 1. Stansfield Turner, "The United States at a Strategic Crossroads," U.S...
...While President Nixon himself has generally preferred to perpetuate these ambiguities, his responses to the recent NLF-North Vietnamese offensive indicate that the Administration is prepared to employ the full weight of U.S...
...This outlook--more often associated with the diplomacy of Presidential Advisor Kissinger--has provided U.S...
...Admiral Zumwalt's November 10, 1972 message on causes of racial unrest was published in its entirety in The New York Times, November 11, 1972...
...77 Command Ship (LCC...
...54 (February, 1969), p. 44...
...Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr...
...The *Our use of the term "pentapolar power balance" should not be construed to mean that all five major powers are approximately equal in stature...
...Flag Over Diego Garcia: Challenging the Soviet Fleet," Armed Forces Journal, February 1, 1971...
...have signalled their intention to embark upon a course deemed inimical to U.S...
...456 Trainers...
...Growing Soviet influence in the Mediterranean is...
...troops on the ground...
...6. For discussion, see: Walter Laqueur, "The Cool War," The New York Times Magazine, September 17, 1972, pp...
...Each year for the last few years a new type of rocket cruiser or missile destroyer has appeared...
...Second, trade with the Asian and African nations bordering the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean is a major factor in the prosperity of Western Europe and Japan, and must be continually expanded if these countries are to remain within the capitalist system...
...and William G. Holder, "Future Water Transport," Ordnance, tlarch-April, 1972, pp...
...To be sure, the expansion of our naval fleet constitutes an efficient use of what Zumwalt calls our "high-technology, capital-intensive services"--American overseas interests are safeguarded, but with a small investment of American manpower...
...Through their naval presence "the Soviets are applying pressure on NATO's flanks in the Norwegian Sea and in the Eastern Mediterranean," Pentagon correspondent Brooke Nihart observed in 1972...
...The effectiveness of these missiles was demonstrated in 1967 when Egypt sunk the Israeli destroyer Elath with a Styx fired from a small patrol boat...
...Quoted in Congressional Record, October 14, 1968, p. E8998...
...and acquisition of new missilearmed hydrofoil patrol boats and experimental vessels based on the Surface Effects Ship principle.* These programs will be discussed briefly below...
...4,384.0 431.0 Classified countries...
...100-48...
...Sixth Fleet Conmmander, Adm...
...184 Patrol...
...The Washington Post, February 8, 1972...
...The anti-Soviet scare campaign has been used, in fact, to camouflage the expansion of our own military apparatus into the Indian Ocean...
...and, Larry Booda, "100 Knot Navy," Navy, June, 1971, pp...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, November, 1971, p. 38...
...1,521 Helicopters...
...25-33...
...ground strength in East asia-has already been attained (since 1969, 9,000 G.l.'s have been withdrawn from South Korea, 7,500 from Okinawa, 9,000 from Japan, 2,000 from the Philippines, and some 400,000 from Vietnam), there is much less agreement about the nature of its other objectives...
...The contours of our strategic position, according to Chief of Naval Operations Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., dictate that "future U.S...
...Such mobile forces will also be used in a deterrent mode--that is, they will be dispatched to the coastal waters or borders of nations which "...At the present time it has become increasingly clear that future U.S...
...138-46...
...and, William D. Siuru, Jr...
...1 5 THE "NAVAL GAP" SCARE AND OUR NEW $50 BILLION NAVY Although most defense analysts agree that strong Navy forces are essential for the attainment of key U.S...
...Using data supplied by the Pentagon and the Center for Defense Information (see table 2), Proxmire argued that Russia'S-numerical superiority in submarines and missile-armed surface ships does not compensate for America's overwhelming superiority in aircraft carriers, destroyers, and other surface craft...
...25-6...
...41 218 aSource: Center for Defense Information, The Defense Monitor, May, 1972...
...America's Navy, moreover, has a strong offensive posture, whereas the Soviet Navy is predominantly defensive in composition...
...Although recent oil discoveries in the North Sea, Nigeria, Alaska and the South China Sea may someday reduce the West's dependence on Middle East supplies*, in the foreseeable future we will require continued access to Persian Gulf oilfields and free use of the waterways over which most of this oil is carried...
...Navy planners predict that large SES warships, capable of speeds of up to 100 knots, will be used as amphibious assault ships, missile armed destroyer-escorts, and as "mini-carriers" equipped with V/STOL aircraft...
...The Mediterranean is the Atlantic Fleet's Vietnam," a top-ranking admiral told the editor of Sea Power magazine...
...113-15...
...But it is not only Israel's fate that is darkly shadowed by the spread of Russian communism into "warm water...
...180.9 43.5 Greece...
...Their ships are now operating on a sustained basis Table 1: United States Naval Forces Summary As of February 1, 1972 ACTIVE FLEET SHIPS, Total...
...3 0 Citing cutbacks in U.S...
...when Bahrain become independent on August 15, 1971, it became necessary to negotiate a new agreement for occupation of the base, and this was accomplished on December 23rd of that year...
...Two other carriers, the Kitty Hawk and the Constellation, were rocked by racial disorders which prompted Admiral Zumwalt to issue an unprecedented public attack on the ingrained racism of Navy officers...
...30-3...
...the growing concern with domestic issues-ecology, racism, urban blight, etc.--coupled with a deep-rooted skepticism concerning the Pentagon's fiscal policies, suggests that less Federal money (on a proportional basis) will be available for Defense programs in the years ahead...
...In some situations," Zumwalt argues, "naval forces...are the only forces that can be brought to bear quickly and effectively without dependence upon forward bases, overflight or landing rights or other support requiring the consent of territorial sovereigns...
...There has not even been a buildup in numbers...
...12 per year for institutions ($22 for two years...
...According to Admiral Zumwalt, the new ship's principal mission will be to protect (1) merchant ships bringing critical resources to the U.S., (2) Sea Conbol Sh* (SCS...
...With domestic programs claiming an ever-increasing share of the Federal budget, each of the three services--Army, Navy (includes the Marine Corps) and Air Force--are advocating a national security posture based on the supremacy of their own weapons and forces, while calling for a reduction in the strength of other services...
...Sixth Fleet to perform its stated mission of helping to maintain peace and stability on NATO's southern front...
...Responding to Senate charges that CVN-70 is not worth its extravagent cost, Zumwalt asserted that "without it, we forego any prospect of naval superiority in the late 1970's and 1980's...
...Proxmire also argues that the Soviet shipbuilding effort poses no future threat to the U.S...
...3 Cruisers (CA, CG, CGN, CLG, CC...
...According to the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Persian Gulf provides half of Western Europe's oil supply, 90 percent of Japan's, and nearly 100 percent of the oij 8 consummed by U.S...
...Both Britain and France possess thermonuclear weapons, and most other European countries are participating in joint development projects that assure continued access to the largest innovations in areospace technology...
...One American stragetist, James D. Atkinson of the Georgetown University, observed that, "For almost a century, the vast Red Sea-Persian Gulf-Indian Ocean complex was an area of relative stability...
...8 11 Cruisers (without missiles...
...The New York Times, January 6, 1972...
...2. U.S...
...This viewpoint was forcefully argued by Major Robert C. McFarlane of the Marine Corps in 1972 as follows: In the absence of significant forward deployed land forces, Navy and Marine forces stand as the only forces capable of demonstrating U.S...
...Underlying this principle was the assumption that "a local Communist aggression even in an intrinsically unimportant place would jeopardize American security by encouraging further aggressions in more important places, leading to a chain of aggressions that might eventually cause World War III...
...Copyright c 1972 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...The Pentagon re- quested $10 million in FY 1973 fo-r initial SCS design studies...
...Ultimately, the Navy hopes to acquire eight SCS's, each of which will carry about 20 aircraft .28 WHY WE NEED CVN-70 --Zumwalt Because the arguments advanced by Navy chief- tain Admiral E.R...
...During the Cold War, these objectives were clothed in a rigid anti-Communist ethic which justified American intervention at the slightest sign of Communist activity in one of our "Free World" protectorates...
...Some interpretations of the Doctrine (most notable those of Senators Mansfield and Fulbright) suggest that we are committed to the eventual withdrawal of our entire military apparatus from Asia, while others hold that we are obliged to expand our air and naval apparatus in order to provide additional support to favored regimes...
...5 7 American newsmen have also reported a higher tempo of U.S.naval activity at the Spanish bases, including the deployment of new P-3 maritime patrol planes...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Executive Agreements With Portugal and Bahrain, Hearings, 92nd Cong., 2d Sess., 1972...
...100148...
...Although we are still stronger than all other world powers (and than most combinations of two or three of them), we must be prepared to face a situation in which we wind up on the weaker side of a new world power realignment...
...A brief summary of major developments is presented below...
...American anxiety over the British withdrawal from the Mediterranean/Indian Ocean area has been particularly pronounced because it has coincided with a substantial Soviet buildup in the region...
...As in the case of the naval gap campaign, the hysterical warnings of the military lobbyists have been echoed in the statements of top Pentagon officials...
...backed Jordanian government...
...British mastery of these waters has also been of great benefit to the United States, as American merchants have long participated in the plunder of the region under the protection of the Royal Navy...
...The number of important variables is much greater...
...are estimated by oil geologists at about 380 billion barrels...
...at an estimated cost of $18 million each...
...Persian Gulf: The United States has long based a small naval squadron, the U.S...
...On one hand, the Government no longer has carte blanche to intervene at any time and at any location to defeat a local uprising, while on the other hand the U.S...
...68 Patrol (PG, PCER...
...10027...
...5 The Sino-Soviet Split and Vietnam have changed all this, however...
...Norman Polmar, "New Carrier Concepts and The CVN-70," Sea Power, March, 1972, pp...
...Forget it," the officer said in 1971, "with the Soviet Air Force in Egypt and the Soviet naval squadron 4 n the Mediterranean, we couldn't get close...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Executive Agreements with Portugal and Bahrain, Hearings, 92nd Congress, 2nd Session, 1972...
...329.1 10.4 Spain...
...14 - iterranean in the event of a Soviet-Egyptian attack on Israel...
...leaders that an amorphous, heterogeneous and divided Communist camp is more vulnerable to American pressure and manipulation than a compact...
...55-6...
...397-9...
...12 -- Naval forces offer us a highly visible instrument for "show of force" operations designed to intimidate a local power without involving the deployment of U.S...
...37 Submarines (SSN...
...BASES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION standing with the Spanish government.* In order to induce Madrid to let us keep our bases, we had to promise a substantial increase in the amount of military aid we were providing the Spanish armed forces...
...New and more powerful subs replace older ones each year...
...This will at the same time sustain our allies' confidence in us and demonstrate by our pre- sence both our capability and our detennination to protect our commerce and our sources of strategic materials from any interruption...
...materiel...
...forces in Europe and Asia...
...31 calls for a vessel of 215 tons displacement, armed with the Harpoon antiship missile and the Italian Oto Melara automatic gun, and capable of speeds of over 40 knots when raised on its foils (which provide the same lift capacity as airplane wings...
...And there the U.S...
...Quoted in Craig Powell, "Hostile Shores Must Still Be Taken, "Armed Forces Management, March, 1969, p. 36...
...Obviously, a five-sided equation is much more complicated than a two-sided one...
...This projection of U.S...
...With Britain no longer willing to perform this police function, the United States immediately began making plans for an increased military presence in this strategic region...
...Brooke Nihart, "Relevant Power: Putting the Salt Water Back in National Strategy," Armed Forces Journal, February, 1972, p. 28...
...One Air Force general, who chose to remain anonymous, told Drew Middleton of The New York Times that the United States would not be able to dominate the eastern Med*Not everyone has reacted with hysteria to Soviet advances in the Middle East and Indian Ocean area...
...Five LHA's are to be built by Litton Systems, Inc...
...leads inescapably to a further conclusion: if we exclude all-out nuclear exchange and protracted counterguerrilla warfare in Asia as likely contingencies in the coming decade, then naval conflict and/or naval-assisted Marine interventions will be the most likely military situations we will face in the post-Vietnam era...
...In order to guarantee that Western Europe and Japan will remain on our side in the pentapolar power equation described above, therefore, the United States must demonstrate its intention to protect "Free World" access to the Gulf and adjacent waters...
...1,368.7 1.8 Portugal...
...Only in this area, they note, "has the Soviet Union shown a willingness to commit its military forces to support its political goals by direct action...
...Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, September 11, 1970...
...Although the United States does not have comparable economic interests in the region, we cannot allow European and Japanese seaborne commerce to be threatened by hostile powers if we are to retain the support of these allies in the great pentapolar power struggle...
...Zumwalt, "FY 1973 Posture," pp...
...Despite such obfuscation, it is possible to begin charting the magnitude of the American buildup in the Mediterranean/Indian Ocean area...
...53-9...
...Adm...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, February, 1972, pp...
...The Navy requested funds for An artist's concept of the PHM...
...Navy was "steadily falling behind in its capability to meet a serious threat" such as that posed by the Soviet Navy...
...15 Assault Ship (LH...
...Originally promulgated in July 1969 by President Nixon while on a visit to Guam, the Doctrine has two main provisions: (1) we will provide a "nuclear shield" if an ally is threatened by a hostile nuclear power, and (2) we will furnish economic and military assistance to an ally when it is exposed to non-nuclear threats, but we will "look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for its defense...
...PHM-1 and 2 will be built by the Boeing Co...
...2,590 Antisubmarine Warfare...
...6 7 It is clear that the Navy's expansionist strategy can yet be blunted by the resistance and opposition of those who will actually have to man the boats...
...The Navy plans to add at least 42 major *The most persistant critic of Defense Department data on the US/USSR naval balance is Senator William Proxmire, who charged that "the Pentagon has artificially made it appear that the Soviet Navy is a massive, modern force that directly threatens the United States," when in fact "the United States leads the Soviet Union in almost every major category and current building programs will keep us on top...
...Iron Works and Todd Shipyards (San Pedro, Cal...
...naval buildup...
...The growing availability of such missiles enables the navies of even the smaller Third World countries to acquire a formidable defense against naval attack by the big powers...
...The uncertainties increase enormously...
...Furthermore, many existing ships are obsolete or rapidly becoming so: the average age of U.S...
...Among the countries that are being groomed for this role are: South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Iran, Greece, Ethiopia, and Brazil...
...They operate more cruisers, minecraft, and missile vessels than any other nation...
...and, DMS, Inc., Ships, Vehicles, Ordnance, Market Intelligence Report (Greenwich, Conn.: DMS, 1972...
...Zumwalt, "FY 73 Posture," p. 24...
...41 Ocean Escorts (DE, DEG, DER, DH...
...9 A study of available documentation suggests a future U.S...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Spanish Base Agreement, Hearing, 91st Cong., st Seas., 1970...
...7 Tank Landing Ship (LST...
...Quoted in L. Edgar Prina, "These Wine Dark Seas," Sea Power, November, 1971, p. 22...
...the 6,900-ton Spruance class (DD-963) destroyer...
...Virginia Brodine and Mark Selden, "The Armageddon Bluff," The Nation, January 31, 1972, pp...
...without allied 0 inherent in this situation is ominous...
...There, Soviet materiel, political interests, and prestige are more deeply involved than anywhere else in the Third World, including Vietnam...
...In order to facilitate the anticipated increase in naval activity, the Pentagon expanded its communications facilities at North West Cape, Australia, and began construction of an entirely new base on Diego Garcia atoll in the British Indian Ocean Territory...
...SUBSCRIPTIONS: $6 per year for individuals ($11 for two years...
...the nuclear-powered, missile-armed DLGN frigates...
...158-9...
...No longer can the United States expect to emerge victorious from any armed encounter that it might be drawn into in the years ahead...
...The active fleet, which as recently as 1969 numbered 932 major combatant vessels, is currently down to 657 ships--and further reductions are likely in the near future--since older vessels are being retired from service at a much faster rate than new ones are being added...
...a strong, modern merchant marine...
...Ibid., p. v. 49...
...2 2 Although some Congressmen have scoffed at the reports of a "naval gap,"* the Pentagon's scare tactics appear to have had the intended effect: Navy shipbuilding appropriations rose from a low of $1.2 billion in 1968 to a peacetime record of $3.6 billion in Fiscal 1973--an increase of 300 percent.** Furthermore, total Navy spending in 1973 ($25.7 billion) exceeded that of the other services by about $2 billion each--the first time that Navy appropriations came out on top in recent years...
...Western Europe, like Japan, has recovered from wartime devastation to pose a serious challenge to American supremacy in the Free World marketplace...
...Many Pentagon strategists have argued, in fact, that the Navy (and sea-based Marine units) can provide the best "mix" of deterrent strength and intervention capability for performance of key Nixon Doctrine tasks: Naval forces can be called in quickly when a crisis develops to provide air support (and a modest ground force if needed), and can be withdrawn just as quickly--thus preventing the development of public oppostion at home and resentment abroad...
...THE PENTAPOLAR POWER BALANCE AND U.S...
...19-24...
...first production contracts are expected in FY 1974...
...Although the Soviet naval presence in the Mediterranean has been growing steadily since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, most Americans have remained relatively unaware of this phenomenon because of the national preoccupation with Indochina...
...raised its proven reserves by some 10 billion barrels, roughly the equivalent to the total finds in Alaska...
...On August 6, 1970, we concluded a new agreement with Spain authorizing the retention of our basing rights there...
...On Pakistan shipments, see The New York Times, April 14, 1971 and February 5, 1972...
...Siuru and Holder, "Future Water Transport," pp...
...As many of the strategists cited above have argued, naval forces provide the most concrete sign of America's readiness to intervene abroad in defense of its vital interests, while at the same time presenting a "low profile" to nationalistic governments abroad and military critics at home...
...Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., "FY 1973 Military Posture and Budget of the United States Navy," Statement Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S...
...With the Indochina conflict apparently on the verge of settlement, America's military establishment finds itself at a "strategic crossroads" with many key decisions pending on the composition and structure of our future Armed Forces...
...2 0 Eller provided this data to back up his warnings: Of sea power's afloat components, only in the surface Navy has the Soviet Union not passed the United States...
...See also: U.S...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, October, 1972, p. 20...
...This support can be projected without physical intervention and can provide immediate reaction to contingency situations of any level of itensity...
...20-25...
...3 Transport Dock (LPD...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y.-3with a Vietnam peace settlement almost in sight, can we begin to appreciate the magnitude and quality of the power alignments that have taken place over the past decade...
...These departures from traditional seagoing practices suggest," according to Nihart, "the problems of re-educating Navy officers, steeped in big-ship experience, to the capabilities and limitations of PG's, PGH's, PHM's, and the upcoming SES...
...Most serious, however, is the collapse of the ideological consensus which assured popular support for all Cold War measures based on a firm anti-communist stance...
...More than any other Defense program, the LHA signifies our readiness to intervene in future crises abroad when American interests are considered to be in jeopardy...
...United States Interests in the Middle East (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1970...
...As in the case of the Spanish agreement, the State Department did not submit the Azores document to the Senate for ratification, even though--again as in the case of Spain--we were compelled to promise increased military and economic aid payments...
...American naval officers traditionally vie for command of aircraft carriers, cruisers, and other big ships, and shun service on smaller vessels like the World War II 'PT' boats...
...395 Attack carriers (CVA, CVAN...
...Among the 42 ships to be acquired will be two nuclear-powered attack carriers (the USS Nimitz and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower), 35 escort ships, and five missilearmed destroyers.25 In order to optimize Navy forces for the postVietnam tasks described above, Defense planners are rushing the development of new classes of ships and accelerating the modernization of existing ones...
...Senate, Committee on Appropriations, Foreign Assistance and Related Agencies Appropriations for FY 1973, Hearings, 92nd Cong., 2d Sess., 1972, p. 592...
...Many of these moves have gone entirely unreported, while the significance of others has been intentionally disguised...
...This philosophy did not, according to Robert E. Osgood of the Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research, "depend on the assumption that international Communism was under the monolithic control of the Soviet Union [as contended by critics], but it did depend on an assumption that amounted to the same thing in prdctice: that a successful aggression by one Communist state would enhance the power of the Soviet Union, China, and other Communist states vis-avis the United States and the free world...
...Thus acquiescence to temporary Communist gains in some areas might be viewed by American policy-makers as less antithetical to U.S...
...Most real battle wounds heal in time--but the invisible scars of reduced morale and public antipathy do not fade so easily...
...resolve to support its defense commitments...
...1 7 In a 1971 address to the New York Chapter of the American Ordnance Association, Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover discussed the Soviet naval build up as follows: "The Soviets are embarked on a program which reveals a singular awareness of the importance of sea power, and an unmistakable resolve to become the most powerful maritime force in the world...
...The huge carrier will displace 94,400 tons, house a crew of over 4,800 men, and carry 90 to 100 attack aircraft...
...crisis managers" with a much wider range of options in settling disputes than were available to any previous Administration...
...on Greece, see "Why the U.S...
...16 AMPHIBIOUS VESSELS, Total...
...15-20...
...Entirely new propulsion systems and hull designs will be incorporated into future warships in order to guarantee America's continued mastery of the ocean...
...With these added funds, he hopes to halt the downward trend in naval strength and to repla % most aging U.S...
...Budget and Forces Summary," U.S...
...On December 9, 1971, the United States signed an executive agreement with Portugal permitting our continued occupation of bases on Terceira Island in the Azores...
...corresponding to this shipbuilding activity, however, is another series of moves of a less obvious nature...
...fully committed to deliveries of oil to the United States...
...2 3 Admiral Zumwalt would like to see Navy spending on ship construction to continue at the rate of about $5 billion annually for the next ten years in order to obtain a modern, $50 billion combat fleet...
...1 3 (Emphasis in the original...
...11-15...
...Zumwalt, "FY 73 Posture," p. 3. See also, "Zumwalt Sees Navy in New Role as Protector of Oil Carriers," U.S...
...Zumwalt, "FY 1973 Posture," pp...
...at an estimated cost of $1 billion, CVN-70 will be the world's most powerful warship when com- pleted in the late 1970's...
...5. Robert E. Osgood, "The Reappraisal of Limited War," Adelphi Papers, No...
...a s ome points, the rope is beginning to fray...
...All kinds of power combinations are possible...
...7 Although most observers agree that one major objective of the new policy--the reduction of U.S...
...Furthermore, we must avoid being caught up in situations where three or more other great powers are aligned against us...
...17-22...
...According to Admiral Zumwalt, these ships will be used in the Mediterranean and other restricted waters to "shadow" Soviet warships and to help defend American vessels against enemy antiship missiles...
...Turner, "Strategic Crossroads," p. 23...
...Robert A. Kilmarx...
...As we reduce our overseas land bases outside of Europe in consonance with the Nixon Doctrine, the aircraft carrier has become in- creasingly central to that mission...
...and virtually all informed laymen see that Israel is now closely beleaguered by authoritarian Arab governments...
...This will normally involve--as demonstrated last May in Vietnam-the deployment of American attack carriers to provide air support for client armies...
...warships with modern new ones...
...On reinforcements for Sixth Fleet, see John Marriott, "The Balance of Power in the Mediterranean," Armed Forces Journal, May 17, 1971, pp...
...32 AUXILIARIES...
...Data for this section (unless otherwise noted) from: Zumwalt, "FY 1973 Posture," 18-29...
...819 Source: Department of the Navy-8in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and increasingly in the Caribbean...
...PEOPLE PROBLEMS" AND THE NEW IMPERIAL NAVY In the years ahead, as American ground troops return from Vietnam and the nation turns its attention to the problems that have accumulated at home, the Pentagon is certain to push ahead with its plans to expand the Navy as the principal instrument of our global military apparatus...
...and, Turner, "Strategic Crossroads," pp...
...VI, No...
...This was so because . . . British forces were on hand throughout these sea spaces to r espond quickly for any needed police actions...
...L. Edgar Prina, "Sixth Fleet Ships to Homeport in Sardinia," Sea Power, October, 1972, p. 36...
...26-9...
...8. See: Richard J. Barnet, "Nixon's Plan to Save the World," The New York Review of Books, November 16, 1972, pp...
...Department of the Navy press release, Feb., 1972, p. 22...
...5 5 The United States has also shipped substantial quantities of modern weapons (including patrol boats and other vessels to Iran, which has seized several islands in the Gulf and increased its naval activity in the area.56 Mediterranean: American moves in the Mediterranean have been described as administrative measures or minor readjustments of our existing infrastructure, but the fact is that we have embarked on a substantial expansion of our facilities in the region...
...57 Submarines (SSBN...
...By building up its naval forces in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, and by developing close ties with the radical Arab states, the Soviet Union has succeeded in "leapfrogging" the solid line of anti-Communist garrison states erected by the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations to "contain" Communist expansion in Europe and Asia, and thus threaten the continued viability of the NATO alliance...
...1 9 This theme was picked up by retired Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller, who warned in 1972 that we are approaching the "sunset of the American dream...
...interests--we will have to forego intervention in some crises where the local balance of power is unfavorable to the United States and its allies.* In a discussion of the problems facing U.S...
...In the military arena, our new flexible stance is most clearly evident in the Nixon Doctrine, which calls for the withdrawal of U.S...
...We have the mission of manifesting an overseas presence sufficiently powerful and visible to make plain to any possible adversary, as well as to our allies, that any effort to challenge our vital overseas interests or those of our allies could bring confrontation with American armed might...
...It is not surprising, therefore, that Prime Minister Harold Wilson's 1968 announcement that Great Britain would terminate its military presence "East of Suez," and reduce its naval presence in the Mediterranean, caused considerable alarm in the United States--which had always looked to its ally to perform the necessary mission in the region...
...While it is too early to determine the outcome of the current debate on U.S...
...The unique contribution of naval forces," Admiral Stansfield Turner wrote in 1972, "is that they provide the most credible deterrent that we can offer short of stationing troops overseas, but they do so essentially by evidencing a commitment of the United States to rapidly introduce its full gamut of Army and Air forces if necessary...
...Lawrence Griswold, "The New CVN: An All-Purpose Carrier," Armed Forces Journal, February, 1972, pp...
...4 3 Finally, there is the question of the area's strategic significance in the overall world balance of power equation...
...1 0 Advocates of the Navy position make these specific points on its behalf: -- Only the Navy/Marine team can deploy fully-equipped, combat-ready troops with integral air support at any point on the globe within hours of the outbreak of a crisis...
...Many Congressmen and civilians, meanwhile, have concluded that the Nixon Doctrine and the President's recent diplomatic initiatives--particularly his visits to Peking and Moscow--make it possible to cut the Defense budget and to pare down the military apparatus substantially...
...22 MINE WARFARE SHIPS...
...CSLBM - Submarine-launched ballistics missile...
...strategic planning for the pentapolar world of the future...
...2 6 *Other major Navy shipbuilding programs include: the Trident ballistic missile submarine...
...Such troops will be armed with American weapons, led by American-trained officers, and guided strategically in battle by American advisers...
...Robert D. Heinl, Jr., "U.S...
...3. America's overseas air and naval apparatus will be greatly expanded in order to insure that American ships and planes will always be available for the defense of client regimes threatened with collapse...
...Not only was a 500,000 man expeditionary army fought to a standstill by poorly-equipped peasant soldiers despite overwhelming U.S...
...and Abraham S. Becker and Arnold L. Horelick, Soviet Policy in the Middle East (Santa Monica, Cal.: RAND Corporation, 1970...
...They demonstrate a thorough understanding of the basic elements of sea power: knowledge of the seas...
...Only now, NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT (Formerly NACLA NEWSLETTER) * Vol...
...Other moves in the Mediterranean have included increased shipments of modern aircraft and boats to our principal clients in the region--Greece, Turkey, Israel and Jordan (see Table 3)--and the replacement of obsolete Sixth Fleet ships with modern new ones...
...interests...
...forces are to be delivered to support our overseas allies in the face of opposition at sea, that is if we are to have any credible alliances, we will need carriers and modern ones...
...Although its Constitution prohibits the development of a warmaking capability, Japan has constructed a substantial military apparatus (known as the National Self-Defense Forces) and, under a new Five-Year Defense Plan, will acquire new air and naval capabilities...
...ernment is increasingly relying on naval forces as an active instrument of intimidation to deter weaker nations from embarking upon a course considered inimical to U.S...
...The widely advertised finds in the North Slope of Alaska have been put at about 10 to 20 billion barrels--enough, if there were no other source, to supply U.S...
...34-5...
...The market for Japanese products in the United States is already approaching the saturation point, and it is clear that Japan must expand its trade with South and Southeast Asia in order to maintain its present rate of economic growth...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, August, 1972, pp...
...9. Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., "The Navy Tomorrow," Ordnance, January-February, 1972, p. 285...
...the same kind of thing in reverse that was more crudely achieved by Britain and France when they were superpowers and sponsored unabashed imperialism...
...Indeed, the Georgetown Center warned in 1969 that "the strategic interests of the non-Communist world would be in grave jeopardy if freedom of movement in and out of the Gulf were curtailed or denied," and that "any situation which put a major power hostile to the West astride these oil supplies would be intolerable...
...1 14 b Destroyers & Escorts (with missiles...
...superiority in the air and at sea, but public support for the military reached an all-time low as millions of people joined the antiwar movement at home in one capacity or another...
...In a major essay on our present military predicament, Vice Admiral Stansfield Turner observed that: "The American people appear to be desirous of reducing the world-wide roles we have been filling for the past 25 years...
...All analyses of this new situation must take these developments into account: 'The People's Republic of China, often depicted in the Western press as being on the verge of revolt and anarchy, has posted notable gains in economic development and apparently has secured mass public support for the present leadership structure...
...The New York Times, July 6, 1969 and January 10, 1970...
...Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., "View from the Bridge of the Sixth Fleet Flagship," U.S...
...The New York Times, January 25, 1972...
...Since "it clearly cannot have- 13 - naval forces adequate to cover its extensive sea lanes for many years," he argued, the United States must maintain sufficient sea control forces in Asian waterways to "make it attractive for the Japanese to maintain their ties with us...
...USSR SURFACE WARSHIPS, Total...
...To be built by Newport News (Va...
...The Split has convinced most U.S...
...All told, oil reserves in the Middle East and North Africa constitute 76 percent of the nonCommunist world's global aggregate...
...Joshua, Soviet Penetration Into the Middle East, p. 5. 48...
...28 Destroyers (DD, DDR...
...Several members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led by Clifford P. Case of New Jersey, subsequently charged that the Administration had violated the Constitutional provisions calling for Senate approval of all treaties, and successfully held up approval of funds for the Bahrain facility...
...indefinite loans of U.S...
...1 The turbulent reaction to America's involvement in Vietnam has also dulled our awareness of changes taking place elsewhere in the world...
...6 1 The terms of agreement with Rome for use of the Sardinia base have not yet been announced (the new base has become a major political issue in Italy, which is seriously divided on the question of an increased Table 3: U.S...
...Finally, the Navy's "sea control" forces are crucial for protection of vital sealanes whose freedom is essential if we are to come to the aid of our allies when attacked, or to reinforce our own troops when deployed abroad...
...and a powerful new navy...
...46-7...
...military power thousands of miles from lyr shores as the national leadership may direct...
...and will request funds for a 2,200-ton version in Fiscal 1974 or 75...
...In one case, the carrier Forrestal was crippled by a $12 million fire allegedly started by a 19 year old sailer, while in another the carrier Ranger was kept in port for three months to repair damages sustained by its main engines when a seaman threw some large bolts into the ship's gear system...
...The Navy has begun construction of two 160-ton prototype SES craft (one each will be built by the Aerojet General Corp...
...This "invisible" buildup, and the reasons behind it, are discussed in detail below...
...naval fuel carriers and supply vessels ("under- way replenishment groups"), (3) amphibious assault forces, and (4) task groups that have no air- craft carriers in company...
...14-18...
...For further information, see: U.S...
...7 2 Cruisers (with missiles...
...forces abroad...
...for servicing and repairs) and by improving morale (servicemen will no longer be separated from wives for sixth months at a time...
...ground strength around the world, Marine Commandant General Leonard H. Chapman asserted in 1969 that: "The future holds not a lessening, but a growing requirement for amphibious or Marine type landing forces...
...naval forces...
...29 Submarines (SS, SSR, SSG, SSGN...
...These strategic waterways were first used by European adventurers to explore and then conquer vast areas of the Third World, and later used by European merchants to transport the vast plunder--slaves and spices, cotton and rubber, tin and oil--appropriated from the area by the West...
...In conjunction with growing aid to the radical Arab states ( and particulary to Egypt), the Soviet Union has increased its naval forces in the Mediterranean and deployed a permanent naval squadron in the Indian Ocean...
...The larger SES warships now being planned are based on the "captured air bubble" principle, which employs a rigid sidewall running fore and aft on each side and hinged trap doors on the bow and stern to contain the pressurized air cushion while accommodating to the wave action...
...If this strategy seems reminiscent of British policy during the 1800's and early 1900's, it should cause surprise to no one since in both cases worldwide deployments of naval forces were used to protect a global empire...
...The shipbuilders have also been careful to elicit the backing of key Senate and House committee chairmen...
...57 (May 1969), 1-20...
...Until 1971, we obtained our right to use the Bahrain facility from Great Britain, which has ruled the island sheikdom as a protectorate since 1898...
...19-29...
...5 9 Meanwhile, new naval bases have been acquired in Sardinia and at Piraeus in Greece...
...and Alvin J. Cottrell, "The USSR in the Middle East," Air Force, August, 1970, p. 41...
...The New York Times, November 13, 1970...
...heavy destroyers of the Spruance class...
...Seattle, Wash...
...Ship Systems Division, Pascagoula, Miss...
...As the number of our land-based for- ces deployed overseas declines, we will need to keep some evidence of power in sight...
...If any U.S...
...At least two contractors--the Bath (Me...
...Today, most analysts agree that the bipolar power balance has given way to a pentapolar balance composed of five major powers: China, Japan, 2 Western Europe, the U.S.S.R., and the United States...
...2. For discussion, see: Raymond J. Barrett, "A Balance of Powers," U.S...
...Zumwalt, "Navy Tomorrow," p. 286...
...Resembling a small aircraft carrier, the 40,000-ton LHA will carry a Marine landing force of 2,000 men (plus all their supplies and vehicles), as well as troop-carrying helicopters and amphibious landing craft...
...ground forces from Asia and the assumption of their duties by the troops of our allies...
...7. Richard M. Nixon, U.S...
...Holloway, "Post-Vietnam Navy," pp...
...Second, the aircraft carrier is a neces- sary part of our sea control forces...
...18 Advocates of a stronger U.S...
...foreign policy have been, and will continue to be, the containment of Soviet power and influence, the defeat of national liberation movements in the Third World, and the expansion of America's share of international commerce...
...Furthermore, while the United States does not presently import much oil from the Middle East, American petroleum experts report that domestic use is expanding at a much faster rate than discoveries of reserves in the Western Hemisphere, and that by the end of the present decade we will need considerable imports from the Middle East to forestall an impending "energy crisis...
...2 9 Amphibious Assault Ship (LHA): The LHA assault ship is the first naval vessel designed specifically for helicopter-assisted amphibious landings...
...bSource: U.S...
...28-9...
...16 0 Helicopter carriers...
...In the single year of 1968, Kuwait...
...Thus during the height of the 1972 U.S...
...The New York Times, June 16, 1972...
...The current PHM scheme *The acquistion of hydrofoil patrol boats and SES vessels will require, in the view of some Navy officers, a considerable re-education effort to overcome the prejudice against small ships in a "big ship navy...
...I am convinced," he asserted, "that we are rapidly approaching the time when we shall have only the second best Navy in the world...
...It is no longer sufficient--as in the heyday of Berlin and Korea--to prophesy the spread of Communist tyranny to secure public backing (and Congressional appropriations) for the deployment of U.S...
...35-7...
...Indian Ocean: After the fighting between India and Pakistan which led to the creation of Bangladesh, the United States announced that it would begin regular naval patrols in the Indian Ocean to "show the flag" and demonstrate our intention to protect vital interests in the U.S...
...Thus Admiral Zumwalt told Congress in 1973: "We have the mission of manifesting an overseas presence sufficiently powerful and visible to make plain to any possible adversary...
...The Sardinia base (located at Maddalena Island, on Sardinia's northern coast) will be used to service the 6 merican submarine fleet in the Mediterranean, 6 while Piraeus (the port of Athens) will become the home port of a *Similar deception has been used to disguise the nature of our agreements with Portugal for use of bases in territories under its control...
...6 5 Although designed, according to Pentagon spokesmen, to deter war, such "show of force" operations are obviously so inherently provocative as to invite conflict more often then they discourage it...
...In order to inspire greater awareness of the Soviet moves, popular American Cold War lobbyists and their allies in the Congress and the mass media have mounted a substantial "scare" campaign, similar in many respects (and concurrent with) the "naval gap" scare described above, to focus attention on the issue.* The following prophesy, made by Frank R. Barnett of the National Strategy Information Center, is characteristic of such tactics: Every student of geopolitics knows that the Middle East is the hinge of three continents...
...George W. Ashworth, "The Crucial Test of '73," Sea Power, April, 1972, p. 12...
...Larry Booda, "The Small Economy Size," Sea Power, January, 1972, pp...
...Furthermore, both Europe and Japan must secure strategic raw materials (other than oil) from this region, and must have unhampered use of the principal waterways ove 2 which most of these products are carried...
...Emphasis added...
...At the same time, we must be able to demonstrate our resolve to defend our protectorates abroad, and without maintaining a costly and and highly visible overseas military apparatus...
...The United States also furnished helicopters and other arms aid to Ceylon when that country was rocked by a revolutionary upheaval in 1971, and permitted some arms to be shipped to West Pakistan in 131 despite an official ban on such exports...
...New finds in the North Sea may indicate oil deposits beneath the sea bed, possibly containing enough oil for one and a half years of West Europe's needs...
...San Francisco Chronicle, November 1, 1972...
...Prina, "Wine Dark Seas," p. 24...
...On Malta, see: U.S...
...and the 4,100-ton Knox class (DE-1052) destroyer-escort...
...10 - Patrol Frigate (PF): Described as an "austere" destroyer, the Patrol Frigate will inaugurate a new class of vessels designed specifically for a "sea control" function...
...Although the final round of the CVN-70 debate has yet to be heard, Congress voted $229 million in 1972 for procurement of "long lead time items" for the carrier.27 Sea Control Ship (SCS): Resembling a small aircraft carrier, the SCS will carry ASW heli- copters and V/STOL (vertical/short takeoff and landing) aircraft...
...Millar, "StrategicConsiderations," pp...
...On the basis of this evaluation, American strategists believe that the United States must take decisive action to prevent further Soviet advances in the area, or suffer the degradation of our pole position in the world balance of power equation...
...military and economic aid to favored regional powers will be greatly increased in order to develop a local counterinsurgency capability that can be employed in future "police operations" within the region (as Thai troops have been used in Laos and Cambodia...
...Thus, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pay for all the forces needed to support the strategy of containment of Communism that has remained largely unchanged over the past quarter-century...
...In the coming decade, however, Europe's greatest assets are likely to be its economic and diplomatic skills...
...Deliveries of "excess U.S...
...Among the shipbuilding programs that will receive the most Navy attention are: procurement of a fourth nuclear-powered attack carrier, the CVN-70...
...Each of the leading powers has to consider the strength and likely actions of four other powers, rather than simply one...
...When the Bahrain agreement was signed, the State Department classified it as an executive order and it was thus not submitted to the Senate as a treaty...
...Navy: "there has been no crash program...
...3 Under this new world power balance, American maneuverability has been sharply reduced: according to Admiral Turner, "the contingencies which we have to face have multiplied, while the resources and facilities available to us, owing to a combination of escalating costs and constrained budgets, are, in effect, declining...
...long-range goals...
...Michael T. Klare, War Without End: American Planning for the Next Vietnams (New York: Knopf, 1972), pp...
...For obvious reasons, the United States will try to avoid being drawn into conflicts requiring an extended American military presence on the ground...
...Still in the design stage, the SCS is expected to displace about 15,000 tons and to cost about $150 million...
...currencies generated under the "Food for Peace" program...
...lead is fast diminishing...
...Zumwalt, "Navy Tomorrow," p. 286...
...Admiral _ __-6Zumwalt describes this capability as the projection of U.S...
...The paramount objectives of U.S...
...Thus the signing of agreements with Spain, Portugal and Bahrain to maintain bases on their territories has been described as administrative measures in order to prevent their submission to the Senate as treaties-which would have required a full-dress debate...
...8- 5Now that an Indochina peace settlement is in sight, it is possible to look beyond Vietnam and sketch out the general outlines of U.S...
...and Textron's Bell Aerospace Corp...
...Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmament, SIPRI Yearbook 1972 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1972), pp...
...9 / Nov...
...on Appropriations...
...Congressional Record, May 25, 1972, pp...
...at an estimated cost of $170 million each...
...93 Destroyers (DDC...
...For discussion, see: Joshua, Soviet Penetration Into the Middle East, 43-52...
...introduction of a new class of escort vessel, the Patrol Frigate...
...Surface Effects Ship (SES): Development of surface effects ships, Zumwalt told Congress in 1972, "offers the potential for revolutionizing warfare...
...dEstimate.CVN-70: Admiral Zumwalt told Congress in 1972 that acquisition of a fourth nuclear car- rier was "the item of highest priority" in the Fiscal Year (FY) 1973 budget...
...4 Although the world's power equation has changed drastically, American objectives in the global sweepstakes have remained unchanged over the past three decades...
...1972 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August, when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, N.Y...
...are expected to participate in the 50-ship program...
...As we enter the "post-Vietnam" era, it is obvious that: -- the American public will not sit by docily and allow the United States to become involved in another counterguerrilla war on the periphery of Asia...
...Soviet forces in the Mediterranean normally include a surface flotilla of 40-60 ships and an underwater fleet of 10-12 submarines...
...For further information, see: R. M. Burrell and Alvin J. Cottrell, Iran, The Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean (New York: National Strategy Information Center, 1972...
...14 Antisub warfare carriers (CVS...
...53-9...
...major Sixth Fleet task force consisting of at least six destroyers and an aircraft carrier (ultimately 6,600 servicemen and 3,000 dependents will be "homeported" in Greece...
...30 Other Amphibious...
...economists realize the same area contains nearly 65 percent of the world's current reserves of oil...
...Each year a new class of submarines has been observed...
...Department of the Navy Fact Sheet, February, 1972...
...The New York Times, May 14, 1972...
...41 35 d Diesel subs (without SLBM's...
...Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.- 7...
...The Wall Street Journal, September 11, 1970...
...Sulzberger, a special correspondent of The New York Times, commented in 1972 that "there is nothing inherently improper in Russian advances in the Middle East...
...military involvement overseas will call first for the high-technology, capital-intensive services--air and naval forces--to support the indigenous armies of threatened allies...
...30-31...
...Our naval forces must provide the credible capability to bring American power to bear in support of any one of our forty-two overseas allies which may be threatened or attacked...
...Address all mail to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y., 10025, or Box 226, Berkeley, Cal...
...These "floating garrisons" will be stationed near potential trouble spots around the world where they will be constantly available for "over the beach" invasions...
...21821, ff...
...naval vessels...
...George G. Thomson, Problems of Strategy in the Pacific and Indian Oceans (New York: National Strategy Information Center, 1970...
...Nihart, "Small Ships," pp...
...and the Indian Ocean, pp...
...6-12...
...that any effort to challenge our vital overseas interests or those of our allies could bring confrontation with American armed might...
...and, Virginia Brodine and Mark Selden, Open Secret: The Kissinger-Nixon Doctrine in Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1972...
...19 - 57...
...657 WARSHIPS, Total...
...Ashworth, "50 Billion Navy," pp...
...It seems that once in her stride there is no stopping her naval progress," writes Jane's editor Raymond Blackman...
...That will require from several hundred to over 1,000 tankers...
...Brooke Nihart, "Air Capable Ships and Through Deck Cruisers," Armed Forces Journal, April 19, 1971, pp...
...interests (as occurred, for instance, in 1970 when Syria prepared to deploy tanks in support of the Palestinian guerrillas under attack from the U.S...
...This is particularly true in the case of Japan, which, in the view of American strategists, is especially vulnerable to threats on its maritime trade...
...Burrell and Cottrell, Iran, The Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean, p. 36...
...153 ACTIVE AIRCRAFT, Total...
...Isaac C. Kidd, watches a Soviet warship from his flagship...
...These recent developments add up to the fact that, strategically speaking, we are in a new ballgame...
...The Stakes are Oil," Army, August, 1971, p.11...
...STRATEGY FOR THE 1970's The American war machine has emerged badly scarred from Vietnam...
...Its most important task, Zumwalt reported in 1972,"will be to help keep open the sea lanes for transport of critical resources into the United States...
...Major functions of the Azores bases include support of airlift operations in Europe and Africa, surveillance of Soviet vessels entering and leaving the Mediterranean...
...Naval Institute Proceedings, June, 1972, pp...
...Clearly, the United States is still the preeminent world power--though it must learn to cooperate with other nations in certain regions where the combined strength of other powers is potentially greater than our own.- 4sheer inability to identify accurately the crucial variables, as well as the constant possibility of their rearrangement, is likely to be a strong deterrent to rash action by any one of the powers...
...As recent events have shown, however, there are special risks inherent in such a strategy: "high technology, capital-intensive" systems are particularly vulnerable to sabotage and to workstoppages conducted by the specialized personnel who operate the systems...
...Missile-armed nuclear submarines had already been active in the region for a long time...
...6 Thus we have not taken direct action to prevent the installation of a Marxist regime in Chile or to halt the spread of Soviet influence in India and Bangladesh, while at the same time we have successfully discouraged China and Russia from adopting a more active posture in Southeast Asia...
...The growth i Soviet naval strength has been "spectacular," according to thd 1970-71 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships, the most authoritative guide to world sea power...
...Congressional Record, October 5, 1971, p. H9216...
...With its own nuclear capability and a growing array of delivery systems (including strategic bombers and mediumrange ICBM's), China can no longer be denied its rightful status as a major power...
...In a discussion of this trend, Admiral Zumwalt told the Senate that by 1985, "the quantities (of oil) imported by sea will be vast--on the order of 12 million barrels a day...
...Other moves in the area include the opening of negotiations with Singapore for use of the abandoned British naval bases there, and the initiation of contacts with South Africa for the exchange of intelligence data o 2 Soviet maritime activity in the Indian Ocean...
...Zumwalt, "Navy Tomorrow," p. 286...
...In which case, the eastern Mediterranean and Indian Oceans become Soviet bathtubs and the new nations of Africa and Asia prey for the huntin 8 gparties of Communist political commandos...
...1,282.7 1,621.3 aSource: U.S...
...development of a "mini-carrier" for antisubmarine warfare (ASW) missions, the so-called Sea Control Ship...
...the spread of antiwar sentiment to the Armed Forces, and growing G.I...
...9 Frigates (DL, DLG, DLGN...
...Agency for International Development...
...For years they have operated an enormous fleet of 350 to 400 boats, a force without parallel in peacetime navies...
...Naval amphibious forces are based at sea and thus cannot become a political liability at home, nor can they be taken away from us by a nationalistic regime abroad (as happened to our air base in Libya...
...needs for about two years...
...The Soviet Navy has already acquired a global reach...
...3. Barrett, "Balance of Powers," p. 22...
...It is not surprising that the "naval gap" argument was promoted by the American Security Council, the American Ordance Association, the Navy League, and other trade associations closely allied with the big shipbuilding firms--which will be the chief beneficiaries of the boost in naval spending...
...Litton, for instance, recently built a multi-million dollar shipyard on the west bank of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi-home state of Senator John C. Stennis, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a strong backer of the Navy's expansion plans...
...and, David Landau, Kissinger: The Uses of Power (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972...
...1 6 Our fleet is also suffering from technological obsolescence: many of the older and slower ships have become vulnerable to antiship cruise missiles, like the Soviet Styx, that can be fired from small, hard-to-detect patrol boats...
...125-6...
...65 40 Destroyers & Escorts (without missiles...
...Although the Pentagon has been very vociferous in its warnings of increased Soviet naval activity in the Mediterranean/Indian Ocean area, it has been largely silent when discussing the buildup of our own forces in the region...
...resistance to racism and repression, have substantially reduced the combat-worthiness of many Army and Navy units and have have compelled the Pentagon to seek new alternatives to manpower-intensive strategic doctrines...
...So, as I understand the Nixon Doctrine, the Navy's future contribution will be even greater than in the past...
...interests...
...Zumalt for procurement of the CVN-70 provide a particularly revealing sununary of U.S...
...S8422-23...
...power overseas: "Here we look to our large carriers with their strike aircraft capable of penetrating 600 miles inland in support of our own or allied ground forces...
...138 343 Nuclear subs (with SLBM'sc...
...17-21...
...Ernest M. Eller, "The Struggle for the Sea," Sea Power, October, 1972, p. 26...
...1-20...
...air offensive in Indochina, two aircraft carriers were disabled for up to three months by damages reportedly caused by insurgent seamen...
...Adm...
...Quoted in The New York Times, November 1, 1971...
...In submarines the Soviets have long since led, at least in numbers...
...Japan is totally dependent on sea communications," Vice Admiral Stansfield Turner wrote in 1972...
...This is a normal consequence of Soviet achievement of a superpower status reflected in economics and politics as much as strategic planning...
...combat vessels is now 16.4 years, and over a third of the active fleet is past the twentyyear mark (when most warships start experiencing serious operating difficulties...
...The ACV's, on the other hand, have a flexible skirt on all four sides to contain the air...
...The fact is that under existing pressures, we are walking a tightrope of adequacy...
...Dollars in millions...
...Turner, "Strategic Crossroads," p. 22...
...2,495.8 244.7 Iran...
...1 4 In presenting these arguments to Congress during the debate on the Fiscal Year 1973 Defense budget, Admiral Zumwalt asserted that "in some contingencies, because of geographical, political, or other constraints," Navy and Marine units "may be the only forces which have utility" in a future conventional conflict...
...Wynfred Joshua, Soviet Penetration Into the Middle East (New York: National Strategy Information Center, 1971...
...two PHM's in FY 1973, and funds for another 30 will be sought in future years...
...30-31...
...In the strategic area encompassing southern Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, the United States has embarked upon a major naval buildup to assure continued Western domination of the region's key waterways: the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean...
...Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co...
...military involvement overseas will call first for the high-technology, capital-intensive services -- air and naval forces -to support the indigenous armies of threatened allies...
...new ships to the surface fleet in the 1971-76 time frame--a 26 percent increase over the 196671 total of 34 vessels...
...56 65 Diesel attack submarines...
...The Commander of the Sixth Fleet, Admiral Isaac C. Kidd Jr., noted in 1972 that: "The growing Soviet naval strength in this area has caused many to question the capability of the U.S...
...Should the Russians succeed in incorporating the Middle East into their sphere of influence," Wynfred Joshua of the Stanford Research Institute warned in 1971, "the balance of power in the world would be seriously upset...
...Middle East Force (MEF), at Bahrain in the Persian Gulf...
...Yearning for peace, he observed, the American public may ignore the Soviet naval threat and thus "drift into shipwreck...
...and Security Supporting Assistance.] Country: 19 4 6-71a 1 9 7 1- 7 3 b Ethiopia...
...Ibid., p. 287...
...Although an accounting of all these interests is beyond the scope of thi1 7 essay, the major ones are identified below.- 12 - First and foremost among Western interests in the Middle East is oil...
...military strategy and our future military machine, it has become very clear that whichever strategies are adopted, the Navy will come out with increased responsibilities and functions...
...and Edmund J. Gannon, "Military Considerations in the Indian Ocean," Current History, November, 1972, pp...
...area...
...1,375 Other...
...The Navy's first SES vessels, known as air cushion vehicles (ACV's), were used for patrol duties in Vietnam's Mekong Delta area...
...First, it is an impor- tant part of our national tactical air capabi- lity...
...strategists in a pentapolar world, Raymond Barrett of the State Department's political staff made this observation: A multiple power balance changes the equation greatly...
...Brooke Nihart, "Small Ships in a Big Ship Navy," Armed Forces Journal, March 15, 1971, pp...
...This capability continues to be important despite recent strides in airlift, according to Zumwalt, "because it is a fact that more than 94 percent of the logistic support required for a possible conventional conflict overseas must go by ship...
...Their latest cruisers and destroyers, bristling with missiles--Russia leads the world in surface-to-su face types--are among the best afloat...
...Japan, in the span of only 25 years, has emerged from the ruins of World War II with the world's third largest GNP and substantial economic interests in the Pacific Basin region...
...T. B. Millar, "The Indian and Pacific Oceans: Some Strategic Considerations," Adelphi Papers, No...
...This policy will ultimately require an agreement on mutual force reductions in Europe, and the acquisition of more transport planes like the giant C-5A Galaxy...
...Thus Rep...
...H. G. Rickover, "Lessons in Preparedness," Ordnance, January-February, 1972, p. 290...
...As in the case of the Bahrain arrangement, the agreement with Spain was not submitted to the Senate as a treaty, despite the fact that the 1970 agreement constituted a significant alteration of our under-- 15 - PRINCIPAL U.S...
...the viability of NATO, the future of Africa, and the security of the United States are likewise menaced by Soviet ambitions and expanding capabilities in this strategic region...
...completion of several Marine "floating garrisons," the LHA amphibious assault ship...
...Small Ships in a Big Ship Navy," Armed Forces Journal, March 15, 1971, p. 2 7 .)- 11 - navigation at slow speeds...
...our Marine Corps with its amphibious lift...
...The ability to maintain a constant presence of ready, seaborne forces, whether hull down on the horizon or coming ashore against opposition, typifies the Navy/ Marine Corps team as the most logical force for providing visible evidence of U.S...
Vol. 6 • November 1972 • No. 9
