LETTER TO ADMIRAL ARLEIGH BURKE FROM ALLEN W. DULLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R001200130018-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 7, 2002
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: July 23, 1957
• Content Type: LETTER

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ER 9-5525/a
STAT
ILLEGIB
O/DCIJ rc/23 Jul 57
Distribution:
Orig. & 1 - Addressee
1 - DCI
1 - JAR
/1 - ER aic
1 - Reading
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MEMORANDUM FOR:
Admiral Burke's speech is on the
importance of maintaining strong
and modern naval forces and their
role in modern warfare.
2 July 57
(DATE)
FORM NO. 10 I WHICH REPLACES
MAY FORM
I AUG 54
BE USED.
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 CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
22 July 1957
Dear Allen:
Enclosed is a copy of the speech you asked
for on Sunday which I gave several months ago
to the English Speaking Union.
Sincerely yours,
ARLE'IGH BURKE
The Honorable Allen Dulles
Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D. C.
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ADDRESS BY
ADMIRAL ARLEIGH A. BURKE, USN, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
BEFORE THE ENGLISH SPEAKING UNION, LONDON, ENGLAND --
MONDAY; 1 APRIL 1957 -- EXPECTE') TOD: 1730 GCT - 1230 EST
My L)rd Mayor, Your Excellencies, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is an honor to be here. I have long looked forward
to paying another visit to England.
I am here today as a sailor, but I would like to emphasize
at the beginning that our defense team consists of an Army,
a Navy, an Air Force and the Marines. Each service is
carefully balanced in relation to others.
The world is changing. Some of the changes are so far-
reaching that it is impossible to comprehend the full impact
of all of them.
The world population, for example, is increasing at
an unprecedented rate. It looks as if it may triple in
the next hundred years.
Land frontiers of the world have all but disappeared.
About the only areas on the surface of the earth which
remain to challenge man's pioneering spirit and ingenuity
in the years ahead are the oceans. Beyond that is the space
above us.
The time may come, of course, when we may be able to
pioneer on some other planet. But today our problem is to
get along on this particular planet.
Technological change is accelerating. Land transportation,
water transportation and air transportation technology is
progressing a very rapid rate. The need to transport
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people and material among nations is expanding year by year.
At sea, our nuclear-powered submarine NAUTILUS cruised,
on her first core, the equivalent of twenty-four Atlantic
crossings, or two and one-half times around the world,
without refueling.
Guided and ballistic missiles are soon to become
commonplace methods for delivery of destructive power--and
times of delivery will be measured in minutes. Antiaircraft
surface-to-air guided missiles already in operation have
demonstrated phenomenal accuracy against aircraft targets.
The destructive power of weapons has increased tremen-
dously. The world is haunted by the specter of a nuclear
exchange between rival population centers.
Defense costs are rising steeply, yet satisfactory
solutions to our security problems still seem far away.
More people, more speed and more destructive power
have created among us a feeling of global claustrophobia.
Many have become so mesmerized by the possibility of massive
devastation that other more practical, and perhaps less
futile, solutions to our problems are being overlooked.
In times like these, men are compelled to search for
new and better answers to their problems. If enough of us
search hard enough, better answers will surely be found,
and perhaps not too far in the future.
In our search for better answers, we are mindful that
certain things have not changed very much. I shall mention
only a few.
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First of all, geography--the basic geography of this
planet--has not changed very much. The mountains remain
where they were. So do the deserts, the plains and the seas.
Land areas constitute less than one-third of the surface of
the earth. The water areas, covering the rest of the world,
still remain relatively untouched.
Another thing which has not changed very much is human
nature. People are land conscious.
Feop.1;o understand land problems more readily than they
do sea problems. Most of the research and development talent
of the human race is devoted to the solution of land problems.
That portion of the total human effort available, which is
devoted to sea matters, still remains very small.
Nevertheless, human liberty and national independence
seem to bear some kind of relationship to an understanding
of the sea. The British, more than any other people in the
world, bear witness to the fact that sea-consciousness and
independence are related.
Today, from the interior of Asia, totalitarianism'
threatens the maritime world. Totalitarianism is again
on the march. This threat has taken many forms over the
years, as it alternately pressed against the maritime world
and then receded. Communist totalitarianism is reaching
out--seeking to subjugate more people and to control more
territory. The cycc1e has begun again.
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Consciously and sometimes unconsciously, the maritime
world has united when threatened with totalitarian aggression.
More often than not, this unity has been rather loose and
informal. It has been a unity born of common ideals and
common purposes, in the face of a common threat. It has
been a common advance toward common goals.
Rarely have all members of this wonderful maritime
federation proceeded along precisely the same path--or at the
same rate--or in rigid cadence. Yet, the fact remains that
this loose, informal maritime association has been, almost
from the beginning,. one of the most powerful, consistent
and constructive influences in the history of civilization.
No people on the face of the earth have contributed more to
this freedom-maritime concept than have the British.
Continental-minded conquerors have long sought to
subjugate these British Isles. None ever understood why
the accomplishment of this should be so difficult. There
may even be a few today who still do not understand.
It is doubtful whether Napoleon ever understood how
his losses at sea, far beyond his shores, were spinning a web
from which he would never escape.
Hitler would probably have missed the point and been well
pleased had he known after Dunkirk that your great Prime
Minister had stripped these islands to reinforce the Middle
East. There were perhaps, in those days too, mmny who
would have placed less emphasis on striking the enemy in
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distant theaters and more on home defense installations.
The Free World owes much to the fact that such advice did
not prevail.
New weapons and new techniques have increased the vul-
nerability of all types of installations. This is particularly
true of fixed bases which can be accurately located well
in advance of attack. We in the United States Navy are
particularly concerned about the increased vulnerability
of stationary bases which support our forces at sea. To
us in the Navy this means greater emphasis on moving
forces, such as mobile carrier striking forces, en d less
reliance on stationary bases for support.
New technologies have done something more. They have
disinterred the ancient claim that a weapon has at last
been found that will sweep surface ships from the seas.
This is, of course, an old story to sailors. For some
reason or other, the development of a new weapon has almost
invariably been accompanied by a claim that navies were finished.
To take only recent examples, in the 19th century,
it was the rifled gun that was to do us in. Then it was
the torpedo, the submarine, the airplane and the atomic
bomb. Now the nuclear-powered submarine is the weapon that
finally is to sink all ships at sea.
Let us not underestimate the threat of the nuclear-
powered, missile-firing submarine. However, new weapons will
also be put to work to assist the Free World navies in
controlling and using the seas. Instead of spelling the
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doom of navies, powerful new weapons invariably add to
our strength at sea.
The need to use the oceans is greater today than ever
before. The tonnage of material moved by sea continues to
increase year after year. Over 991 per cent of the total
world volume of trade moves by sea. Less than one-half of
one per cent moves by air.
Survival under attack depends on the ability of the
free world to come quickly to the support of beleaguered nations
by sea - with modern, hard-hitting Army, Navy and Air Force
teams. The Free World will continue to use the surface of
the seas. The fact is that there can be no Free World unless
we do.
There can be no Free World aseociation unless its
navies are kept up to date. Guns can no longer shoot down
modern, high-flying planes. Guided missiles are needed.
Navies must be equipped with the modern weapons and equipment
needed to meet all threats at sea. Modern weapons and
equipment are needed to cope with the innumerable tasks
which navies must perform.
Modern weapons and equipment are costly. The weight
heavily on the economy of the richest nations.
The Royal Navy is to be congratulated on the steps
it has taken, and will take, to maintain modern effectiveness.
Modern devices, such as the new aircraft--Scinitar and Sea
Vixen, the guided missile--Sea Slug, and other modern devices
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of which we have heard encouraging reports, will all be
needed in the future.
It is not easy, as I have found from painful experience,
to make the decision to spend large portions of the funds
available to a Navy on new equipment. Nevertheless, it is
a necessary decision.
We in the United States Navy are convinced that naval
power will have a greater influence on the lives and affairs
of nations in the years ahead than it has ever had in the
past.
In the nuclear-missile age, even more than in the past,
the side which commands the seas will bot be defeated. The
greatness of Britain bears testimony to her long appreciation
of this fundamental principle.
Technologically, we in the United States Navy feel that
we are now moving ahead, after an initial period when naval
developments seemed to lag behind developments in land-based
weapons. Many of the wonderful ideas which we are using
in our new ships we owe to our colleagues in the Royal Navy.
Of particular significance are some of the contributions
you have made to the effectiveness of our mobile carrier
striking forces--steam catapults, the angled carrier deck,
the mirror-landing system; to name a few.
We look forward to still more naval progress as the
sea-consciousness of the Free World increases, as it surely
will and must. All of us should develop the habit of looking
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ahead toward the seapower of the future, before our communist
competitors, who are learning fast about these things,
take the oceans away from us. Everything possible must be
done to interest more of the creative and industrial genius
of our countries in the solution of oceanic problems.
Turning now to the specific problem of Free World security
in the nuclear-missile age, three things appear to be necessary:
First, our main defenses must be advanced as far toward
the enemy threat as possible. In event of nuclear attack
it is doubtful whether defensive weapons based in home
territories can get into action soon enough or far enough
away to provide good protection for vital areas.
The ocean areas of the world present opportunities
to gain more time and space for defense. The location of
ships at sea is generally unknown to an enemy. Ships must
be searched for and located before they can be attacked.
This takes extra time.
Ships are deployed away from home, away from population
centers of the homeland, near possible trouble areas. This
gives the Free World extra space. The side which has extra
time and space has a decisive advantage.
Next, offensive weapons must be deployed as close to
the source of the threat as possible. This provides another
significant time and space advantage in event of attack. It
adds substantially to the weight of fire that can be delivered
on target for a given expenditure of resources. This means
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superior economy of force, more attack capability for the
amount of money expended.
Third, additional dispersal and maneuvering 'zpace-nist
be found. The one remaining area of the world where space
is relatively inexpensive, and where unlimited dispersal
can be achieved without interfering with people, is the
oceans of the world.
To insure that these vast ocean spaces remain available
for the Free World, we must be able to control them, use
them and deny them to our enemies. This requires a collective
Free World effort. No single Free World Nation can accomplish
this vast assignment alone.
We in the United States Navy are convinced that an
ever-increasing portion of the offensive and defensive power
of the future must be deployed in the ocean spaces of the
world. This applies to Soviet power as well as to Free
World power. One need only contemplate the tremendous
Soviet naval program, and their persistent efforts to gain
access to ice-free coastal areas, to conclude that they
recognize this.
The Soviet naval building program was started at a time
when they were short of everything, at a time when they were
still rebuilding from World War II devastation. Their
purpose is quite apparent. The propose to have the means
to deny the Free World use of the seas. If they ever gain
that ability, they will have achieved their goal of world
domination.
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The Soviets are emphasizing submarine construction.
They are building them in huge numbers. They apparently
see in the submarine a means of launching guided missiles
against the United States. They see in the submarine an
opportunity to inflict terrible losses on Free World
shipping, perhaps even exceeding the accomplishments of
Hitler's submarines, which destroyed millions of ton:
The large number of submarines in the Soviet Fleet are
a grave menace today to the sea communications upon which
our partnership depends.
In event of nuclear war, the power to survive the
initial assault, the power to recover, the power to organize,
the power to shift resources, and the power to carry on to
victory depends on the ability of our navies to move on the
seas, to control them and to bring tremendous power to
bear where it is needed, when it is needed.
For over four centuries the leaders of England have
brought independence, prosperity and security to their
country through their incomparable understanding of the
oceans. Today, when the ocean spaces clearly hold the key
to the future, the Free World continues to look to England's
deep, historical knowledge of the sea for inspiration aid
guidance.
Those of the Free World who understand these things
must persist in their efforts to call attention to the
importance of the oceans in this nuclear-missile age.
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Our greatest danger as free people lies in the failure to
recognize our oceanic opportunities, rather than in lack of
techniques or courage to deal with the enemy
In the oceans will be found the mobility which we need
to move with superior force to the aid of those among us
who are threatened with aggression.
In the vastness of the oceans will be found the space
to disperse and maneuver the powerful offensive-defensive
complexes of the future.
In the oceans will be found the means of deterring or
defeating nuclear aggression and the means of keeping local
wars localized.
It is the oceans which bind together the tremendously
superior power of the Free World. The oceans bind the NATO
alliance together. Without their use our great partnership
cannot exist.
We in the United States Navy firmly believe that Free
World survival in the years ahead depends to a very large
degree on the sea-consciousness of its peoples and governments.
Through proper use of the oceans the Free World can continue
to confront the modern-day totalitarian with overwhelming
force, overwhelming resources, better manpower and better
scientific and industrial talent. The oceans provide new
opportunities for the solution of some of the most pressing
problems of our time. They are the key to many of our future
security problems, at a price we can afford to pay.
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One of the hardest problems in the world is deter?minging
the proper balance to be maintained within a nation's
military forces. This requires the best professional
military experience and the best professional military
Judgment the nation has available. My experience with this
problem over a period of several years has impressed me with
the tremendous contribution made by each of the military
services to the overall defense effort. Each service has an
indispensable, very specialized part to play. No single
service can perform successfully without the help of the
others. The military power of a nation rests in the united,
balanced effort of all the services, each contributing its
best in its own field, each supporting the others in their
fields.
In the broader framework of all alliance, this team
concept applies equally well. In it lies our best hope of
safeguarding a Free world which our oceanic strength makes
possible.
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