Maritime Strategy vs. The Wall

Review by Bill Doughty

Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman writes a version of history in "Oceans Ventured: Winning the Cold War at Sea" (W. W. Norton, 2018) in which the United States Navy was key in bringing down the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall. 

Admirals Stephen B. Luce and Alfred Thayer Mahan

How did the Navy take on the Soviet Union, and what are the lessons of history for us today in facing 21st century threats?

Starting with the earliest naval history and foundational strategies of Admirals Luce and Mahan, Lehman builds the case for the importance of a forward-deployed, well-resourced, and innovative Navy committed to global exercises with partners and allies. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy earlier in the 20th century, had a deep devotion to the sea service. Under FDR, the Navy was indispensable in winning WWII, especially in the Pacific.

"The U.S. Navy ended World War II with more than seven thousand ships, including ninety-nine aircraft carriers," Lehman writes. "Many politicians demanded that the navy mothball, scrap, or otherwise dispose of this massive and expensive fleet." In fact, they debated the need for a blue-water fleet.

Missouri steams to Turkey as U.S. support against Soviet territorial claims.

The Cold War began almost immediately after the Second World War as the Russia-led Soviet Union began expanding into other nations' territories, desiring supremacy, hegemony and empire.

Truman, a former soldier, showed his preference for the Army. Nevertheless, when it came to flex power and show support to NATO in the face of Soviet aggression, Truman sent "big stick" USS Missouri (BB-63) to Europe. The Korean War was further evidence to the nation of the need for a forward deployed, trained and ready navy.

Lehman shows how LBJ used the Gulf of Tonkin incident, involving Navy ships, as an excuse – "despite skepticism of Navy leaders" – to ignite the Vietnam War. 

USS Halibut (SSN-587) underway in the Pacific Ocean.

Cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers and submarines played different but critical roles in countering the Soviet navy. Lehman reveals formerly classified reports and information, including Operation Azorian and recovery of part of Soviet nuclear submarine, K-129, and operation at the heart of John Piña Craven's "The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea."

Although the fleet shrunk under President Richard Nixon, the late 60s and early 70s saw the rise of great strategic thinkers and leaders in the Navy, including Admirals Zumwalt and Holloway.

"In September 1970, the new chief of naval operations, Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, launched a detailed, comprehensive, and coherent blueprint for initiatives the navy needed to take to regain momentum and prevent the Russians from gaining naval supremacy. The project was called Project SIXTY. It included many new programs that were essential to prevail against the new cruise missile, submarine, torpedo, Backfire bomber, and missile threats that the Soviets were beginning to deploy in large numbers in their growing blue-water fleet. It included new ship and aircraft systems needed to operate in Arctic waters as well as shallow tropical seas. It provided for planning and training to operate in those unfamiliar and difficult environments. Zumwalt's successor, Adm. James A. Holloway, revised and adjusted some of the priorities, and because of his skills in dealing with Congress, he was able to get funding for the development of most (but not all) of the initiatives, which were then eventually successfully funded and deployed by the navy during the Reagan administration."

Adm. Thomas B. Hayward, who served as Pacific Fleet Commander and CNO, was "a major player in the development of a forward naval strategy."

President Jimmy Carter, a Naval Academy graduate, surprised many Navy veterans by reducing the size of the fleet and "turning the other cheek" instead of confronting the Soviets.

"In the name of détente and cutting the budget, Carter had prepared to give away some of the crown jewels of Mahanian naval superiority," Lehman writes.

On the cusp of President Ronald Reagan coming into power and Lehman becoming Secretary of the Navy, the Soviet navy showed its reach in the Arctic, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, and Soviet-backed Iraq invaded Iran.

President Reagan increased the defense budget, called for a new strategic bomber, reactivated battleships, ordered the building of four new nuclear aircraft carriers, and revised the rules of engagement. "And he sent the U.S. Navy forward."

A rejuvenated U.S. Navy showed its skills in the Norwegian Sea and in the Ocean Venture 81 exercise, involving 15 nations and 250 ships.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

Lehman describes how Hollywood's Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson approached Holloway and Lehman with the proposal to produce "Top Gun," which Lehman thought garnered public support for the U.S. Navy in general and naval aviation in particular.  

In a similar venture, Lehman green-lighted Dr. Robert Ballard, in coordination with National Geographic, to use Navy technology to search for and find the Titanic in the North Atlantic. Lehman subsequently declared Ballard "Bottom Gun."

Navy's modernization efforts and maritime strategy were "gaining global velocity" in the early to mid 80s as USS Ticonderoga, the first Aegis cruiser came on line. In 1984, Lehman led a delegation to Beijing to arrange a deal to modernize the Chinese navy "to deal with the Soviet threat."

Readers of "Oceans Ventured" may wish to see more discussion of Lehman's initiative with China as well as the importance of collaboration and cooperation with other nations' navies, although there are several mentions of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (incorrectly called the "Japanese" Maritime Self-Defense Force).

On March 13, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Soviet Union. 

"Faced with political economic stagnation, [Gorbachev] advocated and began to implement policy reforms based on perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Glasnost meant giving publicity to problems, issues, and proposed solutions to generate support for perestroika, which meant restructuring the government bureaucracy and rebuilding the economy and industry."In his first dramatic foreign policy move, he suspended deployment of Soviet SS-20 intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missiles in Warsaw Pact states. He then began to cut back on resources to the Soviet Armed Forces, including the navy."

On the 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Gorbachev announced a moratorium on nuclear testing. Lehman gives details of how the "diplomatic thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations accelerated."

Adm. James A. Lyons, Jr.

"President Reagan was keenly interested in nuclear arms control and the reduction of the superpowers' bloated nuclear arsenals. He and Gorbachev slowly formed a partnership over the next three years or so to reduce the amount of nuclear weaponry on both sides. He was far less keen than Gorbachev, however, to constrain the U.S. Navy, which he regarded as an essential and unique pillar of U.S. military strength."

Adm. James "Ace" Lyons, who commanded the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the mid-80s, "launched into planning a furious succession of exercises, often unprecedented or deviating from their predecessors, especially in their predictability." Lehman notes," Pacific Fleet exercises had already become more aggressive, more forward, more innovative, and less predictable."

On May 6, 1986, three U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, Ray, Hawkbill and Archerfish, surfaced simultaneously at the North Pole, demonstrating the Navy's power and capabilities. Navy surface ships continued successful FONOPS asserting freedom of navigation in Avancha Bay, the Black Sea and near the Kuril Islands.



Was the U.S. Navy solely responsible for turning the tide in the Cold War? Apparently not. Other events put pressure on the Soviet economy.

Chernobyl disaster

In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl melted down, creating "an unprecedented international crisis." Then, oil prices dropped, hitting Russia and its satellites and forcing Gorbachev to look inward. His military doctrine became less offensive and more defensive.

"For over three years, U.S. and Soviet diplomats had been negotiating to reduce or eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. Finally in Washington in December 1987, at their third meeting, President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, agreeing to eliminate completely all their nuclear and conventional ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. This was a major milestone in the warming relations between the two superpowers."

The fall of the Soviet bloc in 1989-1991 accelerated hopes for peace. President George H.W. Bush ordered the withdrawal of tactical nuclear-armed Tomahawk missiles from U.S. Navy ships.

Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty in December 1988, committing to a safer world.

The wall came down, and "the once-powerful Soviet navy faced being split apart." United States maritime strategy, "supported by a bipartisan Congress," proved to be the West's advantage in the geopolitical balance of power, according to Lehman.

In "Oceans Ventured's" epilogue, Lehman warns of a new potential axis of China/Russia/Iran, "eerily similar" to Germany/Italy/Japan more than 75 years ago.

U.S. President Trump and Russia President Putin meet in Helsinki, Finland in July 2018

He says Russian President Vladimir Putin has revanchist goals and "seems to suffer from delusions of grandeur," noting, "Putin has become the master of 'hybrid warfare,' using cyber attacks, disinformation, 'fake news,' election meddling, paramilitary 'little green men,' intimidation, and occasionally assassination against adversaries."

Lehman adds, "China presents a different kind of problem. Its leaders do not hide their intention to establish command of the western Pacific, and they are progression rapidly toward achieving that regional goal." He contends that China continues to use North Korea as a foil to distract and "dominate world attention."

What is the history yet to be written for the U.S. Navy? "The lesson of this book is that we must restore the capability of our naval forces and sailors not because we might have to go to war with North Korea, Russia, Iran, or some other adversary but because we must prevent having to go to war at all," Lehman concludes.