美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Taking Of K-129': How The CIA Stole A Sunken Soviet Sub Off The Ocean Floor

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're going to switch gears now. This is a mystery story, a spy story and a technology story all rolled into one. It started one February morning in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, when Soviet¹ submarine K-129 sank to the bottom of the sea floor, taking with it 98 crew members, three nuclear ballistic missiles and a tempting² treasure trove³ of Soviet secrets. At the time, 1968, there was no way to get the submarine off the bottom of the ocean. But over the next six years, a secret CIA mission spent $800 million to get the sub off the bottom of the ocean and to lift it from a depth of more than 3 miles into the hull⁴ of a massive custom-built ship.

It sounds like a movie, but it is in fact true. It's the subject of Josh Dean's book, "The Taking Of K-129: How The CIA Used Howard Hughes To Steal A Russian Sub In The Most Daring Covert⁵ Operation In History." And Josh Dean joined us from our bureau in New York. Josh, thanks so much for speaking with us.

JOSH DEAN: Thanks for having me.

MARTIN: So run us through some of the - just some of the obstacles that stood between the CIA and their - and this prize.

DEAN: (Laughter) So many. I mean, let's start with the fact that they were going to have to pull something off the bottom of the ocean, achieving a feat⁶ of engineering far beyond anything that had been attempted in history. I mean, there had been no salvage⁷ of a submarine below 1,000 feet at that point.

Certainly, there was no existing off-the-shelf technology to go out and pull something that weighed 2 million pounds off. But if it had been at a hundred feet, it would've been complicated. This was at 3 miles, as you said, 16,500 feet. So it required a very specific and expensive tool that would have multiple components⁸ that had never been used before, I mean, unbelievable engineering. I would still argue to this day probably the greatest feat of naval⁹ engineering.

And on top of that, you had to do it in secret because it's not like a giant ship parked in the middle of the Pacific, where giant ships aren't normally parked, isn't going to arouse suspicion. And, oh, by the way, that's where a Soviet sub sunk somewhere out there. So you had to do this thing that was going to require immense engineering and equipment of gigantic size, and you had to do it in secret. Those two things don't tend to go together.

MARTIN: What was the cover story that they came up with?

DEAN: Yeah. So it was kind of a problem. They were, like, well, if we're going to do it, we're going to have to build this ship. But then how do we explain to people, especially the Soviets¹⁰, why we are going to have a ship out in the middle of the ocean? Like, that's just going to seem strange. So someone came up with the notion of, well, ocean mining is a thing. So the CIA original task force decided¹¹, well, what if we pretended that we were ocean mining?

We'll tell people that this is a mining ship, and we are going to be the first people to mine the ocean. But there's another part of that, which is we can't be doing it. The U.S. government can't do it. That would obviously be a lie. We need somebody who plausibly¹² would be mining the ocean, spending a lot of money despite all logic¹³ saying that this is not, like, a feasible economic thing. Who could that be? What about Howard Hughes, the guy who built a wooden airplane that didn't fly?

MARTIN: Tell people who he is, or was, for people who may not remember.

DEAN: Right. So Hughes, at that time, probably the most famous businessman in America, eccentric billionaire, came up in a mining family - so actually, that's one reason this made plausible¹⁴ sense - but then became just sort of bon vivant entrepreneur, aviation. He made movies. And by 1968, he was just gigantically famous but also living on the top floor of the desert in a hotel in Las Vegas, you know, hopped¹⁵ up on pills. And he became a shut-in. But to the public still, he had these companies. He had a lot of money. He had proven track record of doing bananas things that didn't make sense.

MARTIN: So he was so eccentric and so rich and famous that people - oh, yeah, sure. That could be true. One of the surprising things that you talk about in the book is the way the CIA handled media requests for information. So tell me about that.

DEAN: Well, so when the story ultimately was exposed - it did break in 1975. A radio reporter named Jack¹⁶ Anderson, very famous journalist of that time, broke the story. And at that point, the floodgates sort of opened in all of this. Numerous reporters who had caught wind of it before but were convinced by the CIA director to sit on the story. He made a convincing appeal that, hey, you could really do damage to national security and quite possibly start a war because if the Soviets find out that we did this, it's a very dangerous thing.

So numerous papers, including The New York Times and Washington Post, agreed to sit on the story in exchange for - he said, I'll give you the full story later. Once we're finished, then I will tell you everything, but for now, please sit on it. And they all agreed to do that. And then this one reporter went rogue¹⁷ and then sort of the floodgates opened. Well, the CIA's response to that was to never talk about it any - despite the fact that it came out in the media.

They basically - CIA director called those reporters and said, I know you have stories, go ahead and run them, but I will never comment on this again - and all the way up to the president, and for decades would not acknowledge. It became this, like, total secret. The words Project Azorian was not declassified¹⁸ until 2011, when the CIA released a partially¹⁹ redacted history. And I think that had a lot to do with sort of backroom negotiations²⁰ with the Soviets. When it was exposed, we told them we won't talk about this in exchange for you not elevating the stakes and actually raising tensions which could harm us all in the end.

MARTIN: And whence comes the famous can neither confirm, nor deny that is something that we've heard quite a bit of.

DEAN: Call it the Glomar exemption²¹, right. Because the ship was called the Hughes Glomar Explorer. The Glomar exemption was the phrase can neither confirm, nor deny, which was a CIA legal answer to the problem of FOI requests, by denying it on national security grounds would admit that they had built the ship and that its existence was real. Confirming it they obviously couldn't do, but they also couldn't deny it. So a lawyer at the CIA said, well, how about we neither confirm, nor deny? And that actually stood up in court. It was challenged by a Rolling Stone reporter and the ACLU, I believe. And it held up in court. And now, we all deal with that phrase on a daily basis.

MARTIN: Well, to the end of that - at the end of the book, you say you have a special note about sources. And you say that - you write that this being a book about intelligence, a business that employs and relies on some of the world's best liars²², it's always possible that someone's memory is a little off or that a person has intentionally²³ misled me. Why did you feel the need to mention that possibility?

DEAN: Well, you know, when you have lies on top of lies, cover stories and then years in which the only people who know don't talk about it, then, you know, lots of rumors²⁴ start to arise. So I just wanted to make it clear. Can I say with 100 percent certainty that everything that was told to me by retired²⁵ intelligence officers is true? I can't. I mean, I feel like this is the truth. I still feel like it's also possible there are things that I don't completely know and that we may never know.

MARTIN: That's Josh Dean. His latest book is "The Taking Of K-129: How The CIA Used Howard Hughes To Steal A Russian Sub In The Most Daring Covert Operation In History." It's out now. Josh Dean, thanks so much for speaking with us.

DEAN: It was fun. Thanks for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHIMP BEAMS' "ONE DUB")

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

3 trove   

n.被发现的东西，收藏的东西

参考例句：

• He assembled a rich trove of Chinese porcelain.他收集了一批中国瓷器。
• The gallery is a treasure trove of medieval art.这个画廊是中世纪艺术的宝库。

4 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

5 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

6 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

7 salvage   

v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救

参考例句：

• All attempts to salvage the wrecked ship failed.抢救失事船只的一切努力都失败了。
• The salvage was piled upon the pier.抢救出的财产被堆放在码头上。

8 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

9 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

10 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 plausibly   

似真地

参考例句：

• The case was presented very plausibly. 案情的申述似很可信。
• He argued very plausibly for its acceptance. 他为使之认可辩解得头头是道。

13 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

14 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

15 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

16 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

17 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

18 declassified   

adj.解密的v.对（机密文件等）销密( declassify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Thousands of classified documents have now been declassified. 数以千计的保密文件现在被解密了。
• The software used for Siemens S7-300 encryption logic block declassified. 此软件用于对西门子S7-300加密逻辑块解密。

19 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

20 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

21 exemption   

n.豁免，免税额，免除

参考例句：

• You may be able to apply for exemption from local taxes.你可能符合资格申请免除地方税。
• These goods are subject to exemption from tax.这些货物可以免税。

22 liars   

说谎者( liar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The greatest liars talk most of themselves. 最爱自吹自擂的人是最大的说谎者。
• Honest boys despise lies and liars. 诚实的孩子鄙视谎言和说谎者。

23 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

24 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。