U.S. Gives Russia Info On Sub That Sank In '68

 

By Mike Eckel, Associated Press

 

Moscow--U.S. military officials on Monday gave Russia a videotape and other archival materials on the Soviet K-129 submarine, whose sinking in 1968 is a lingering Cold War mystery.

 

At a ceremony in the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, Russia's Pacific Fleet archive and museum received copies of formerly classified documents, including two ship logs related to the K-129 incident and to U.S. efforts to salvage the sub from the sea floor in the central Pacific.

 

Also turned over was a videotape of a secret burial at sea for six Soviet sailors whose bodies were recovered when the United States tried to salvage the sub.

 

It was unclear whether the ceremony would help assuage persistent suspicions Russian naval officials and relatives have had about the fate of the K-129--a Golf-II class, diesel-electric submarine armed with nuclear missiles. It had 98 seamen aboard when it sank in 16,000 feet of water northwest of the Hawaiian island of Oahu on March 11, 1968.

 

Russian officials long have suspected that the K-129 was struck by an American submarine, the USS Swordfish. But the U.S. Navy says the vessel suffered a catastrophic internal explosion.

 

Russian doubts about the U.S. explanation re-emerged in 2000 with the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk. Many military officials suspected the Kursk collided with an American or British submarine. U.S. and British officials denied the allegations, but U.S. officials acknowledged that two U.S. submarines were close enough to record the sound of enormous explosions aboard the Kursk.

 

Russian suspicions about the Swordfish were based on records indicating it underwent nighttime repair of a bent periscope at Yokosuka, Japan, on March 17, six days after the K-129 sank. Moscow has requested the Swordfish's deck logs to trace its movements. The Pentagon has explained the repairs in Japan by saying the vessel had collided with an ice pack.

A year ago I read a fascinating book about the Soviet submarine K-129. The book was Red Star Rogue by Kenneth Sewell. The author was a crew member aboard USS Parche, a fast attack sub, for five years. Parche conducted a number of special operations, some of which were revealed in Blind Man's Bluff.

 

Mr. Sewell holds DoD and DoE security clearances. His research into recently declassified intelligence files in the US and Soviet military archives has revealed that K-129 was actually much closer to Hawaii than was publicly reported. The purpose of the misinformation is the gist of the book.

 

Mr. Sewell tells a story of a rogue sub Captain who wants to nuke Pearl Harbor in such a way that the blame falls on China, who has similar subs and missiles. The internal explosion was actually a self-destruct of one of the subs R-21 missiles, similar to the R-11 missiles given to the Chinese, when the launch code was bungled by the sub's Captain. The self destruct was caused by a Permissive Action Link (PAL) which the US secretly agreed to supply to the Soviets in a now-declassified memo from NSC staffer Spurgeon Keeny to LBJ's NSA Walt Rostow in 1966.

 

The decision to give the Soviets the PAL technology probably saved us from a second "Pearl Harbor", literally.

 

If you want to read about the research and painstaking assembly of details that resulted in this book, and read how close we came to a nuclear war, this book is a must read. The book's ISBN is 1-4165-2733-8 (paperback.)

 

Regards, Terry