U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced the U.S. policy of massive
retaliation. Shortly after taking office in 1953, President Eisenhower had
adopted the New Look, a defense strategy relying heavily on nuclear rather than
conventional weapons. In January 1954, Dulles framed this military strategy
with a tough anti-Communist foreign policy. In the future, Dulles explained,
the United States would not be drawn into expensive, limited conflicts like the
one in Korea. Rather, in response to Communist aggression anywhere in the
world, the United States might use "massive retaliatory power" applied "at
places and with means of its own choosing." In other words, the United States
would use nuclear weapons directly against the Soviet Union and China.
Before the end of World War II, many in the Navy could see the potential for a
nuclear-powered submarine. Conventionally powered submarines had to surface
regularly to recharge their batteries. A nuclear submarine could stay submerged
for weeks or months. In 1948, the Navy put Captain Hyman Rickover in charge of
developing a nuclear submarine. The Atomic Energy Commission also funded this
work. The first nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, was launched at Groton,
Connecticut on January 21, 1954.
In August 1958, the U.S.S. Nautilus sailed far beneath the Arctic ice and
reached the North Pole. The original power core propelled the submarine for
more than two years. Modern cores last 10 to 15 years. By 1962, the Navy had 26
nuclear submarines and had launched two nuclear-propelled surface ships. The
aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise, powered by eight nuclear reactors, was
launched in October 1962 and is still in service.
|
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080920130717im_/http://www.em.doe.gov/images/spacer.gif) |