Adventure classics: Spies in the air, spies under the sea

Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton

by Edward L. Beach, USN

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One of a class of radar picket submarines intended for long-range defense during the Cold War, the USS Triton, when commissioned in 1959, was the biggest submarine ever built – and the most expensive. Within two years, still newer technology would make it obsolete, but not before it had performed one of history’s most spectacular voyages – the circumnavigation of the Earth, while remaining submerged.

The time was mid-February 1960. Within three months, the leaders of the U.S. and the USSR were scheduled to meet in Paris to discuss a possible détente between their countries. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, still smarting from the USSR’s initial lead in the space race, wanted a spectacular military achievement to wow the Soviets.

There was a possibility at hand – the newly commissioned nuclear giant USS Triton, ready to make its maiden “shakedown” voyage under the command of World War II naval hero Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr. Would demonstrating the U.S.’s ability to use its radar anywhere in the world’s oceans while remaining submerged, and therefore virtually undetected, be enough to quiet Soviet Premier Khrushchev?

It was worth a try, Eisenhower decided. But to preserve deniability if the ploy failed, the Triton’s voyage must remain a closely-guarded secret until it was concluded.

Accordingly, as Beach wrote in his 1962 volume, Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton, “Late in the evening of the first of February, (with) all tests and evaluations complete. . . on my desk, as I came down from the bridge after Triton had been safely moored, (I found) a soiled envelope, slightly crumpled as though it might have been carried some distance by hand.”

Following the directions in the envelope, Beach met a few days later with a room full of admirals, captains and commanders. He had been directed to wear a civilian suit in order to mislead anyone who might question the nature of the rendezvous.  The question put to him: instead of its expected shakedown cruise in the North Atlantic, could the Triton go all the way around the world – while remaining submerged?

All he could say was, “Yes, Sir!”

And of course, could he keep the greatly extended voyage a secret from his crew members, some of them family men and expectant fathers. And still more urgent – could he keep the secret even from his wife?

“No one volunteered an explanation as to why the timing – and secrecy – were so vital,” Beach wrote, “and I did not ask.”

Most likely, Beach was aware of the impending Paris summit, scheduled for May 1960. It was possible, although less likely, that Beach may have known that the U.S. already an eye of the Soviets Since July 4, 1956, the U.S. had operated high-altitude U-2 spy planes over Soviet airspace. These flights at 70,000 feet were believed to be undetectable by ground radar, an important issue because unauthorized invasion of a country’s airspace could be considered an act of war.

But if the U.S. didn’t dare reveal its aerial overflights, it would be happy to trumpet an oceanic circumnavigation – provided the voyage was successful.

And so the Triton set off, its mission unknown to anyone on board save for Beach and a few of his officers.

“Dived,” Beach wrote on the first page of his report of the voyage. “We shall not surface until May.”

How much more than anyone realized would happen before that surfacing took place.

(Next Friday, Adventure classics continues an August of adventures at sea with Edward Beach’s Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton.)

Wordcraft -- Books and a life in review

Among the many joys of books are reading them and talking about them. Both, however, require some mental effort. And despite recent rain, the dog days of summer are not the easiest time to exert mental effort. Fortunately, for days when it’s too hot to do anything book related, there’s the wonderful Texas tradition of listening to other people review books they’ve read. It’s a tradition especially wonderful when the reviewers are both knowledgeable and entertaining.

I’m referring especially to The Rejebian Summer Series, sponsored on Wednesdays in June and July by Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas. Last week I attended the series for the first time, to hear University of Texas at Dallas professor Clay Reynolds discuss two recent books about President Eisenhower, Jean Edward Smith’s Eisenhower: In War and Peace, and Evan Thomas’s Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World.

That’s Dwight D. Eisenhower, the seldom mentioned Republican president of “I Like Ike” fame. A man with the kind of slogan that would be sneered at nowadays, with no blame, no finger pointing, not even an obvious political agenda.

Who was this man? “A shape shifter” who deliberately chose to appear older than his age, deliberately chose to appear befuddled, Reynolds said, to deflect attention from his agendas.

Without having ever belonged to a political party, Eisenhower won the presidency as a Republican, then killed the hundreds of bills initiated by fellow Republicans to dismantle the New Deal programs of his Democratic predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt. Without ever having fired a rifle in combat, Eisenhower became one of America’s greatest war heroes but “not one (uniformed) American died in combat during the eight years he was president,” Reynolds said.

Ike’s accomplishments included the interstate highway system (after realizing the military implications of Germany’s autobahn), presiding over the racial integration of schools, and enforcing pre-existing laws about integration of the U.S. military, despite his personal disagreement with such laws.

His failures included his inability to establish a public health care system and obtain the détente with the Soviet Union he desperately wanted.

And in Eisenhower’s personal life, he failed to secure a future with the woman he was willing to divorce his wife for, his wartime driver Kay Summersby. In a bizarre twist, Eisenhower refused a request from Harry Truman to run for president as a Democrat -- but not because he hated Democrats. Instead, Reynolds said, his falling out with Truman occurred at least partly because he believed Truman had a copy of a letter sent to Eisenhower by George C. Marshall. The letter from Marshall, the man who had mentored Eisenhower, threatened him with court martial if he divorced his wife to marry Summersby. (The revelation that Eisenhower was ready to destroy his long-term marriage was a revelation that drew some “say it ain’t so” gasps and questions from Reynolds’ audience.)

Eisenhower was also “an inveterate gambler who had to quit playing poker because he was winning all the money of his subordinates.” He turned instead to bridge.
But his biggest bluff wasn’t with cards. The big bluff, the one that inspired the title of one of his biographies, was that of the ultimate weapon he wielded: “If you have the power to destroy the world, you have to know if you’d do it,” Reynolds said. But it’s a decision that can never be shared. Not even with those closest and dearest.

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If not for a continuing schedule conflict, I’d have written sooner about the Rejebian Summer Series, inspired by the book clubs of Armenian-American reviewer (and longtime Dallas resident) Ermance Rejebian. The series continues through July 31. It’s free, with free parking at the church and in the parking garage of the neighboring Meadows Museum. For information, see www.hpumc.org/rejebian/.

The books Reynolds mentioned are available in the Dallas Public Library system. For more about Reynolds and his work, see www.clayreynolds.info/.