Word: fleetness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...massive buildup after the 1962 Cuban crisis, it has become, as Jane's Fighting Ships notes, "the supernavy of a superpower." Moscow's growing strength at sea has long since been noted in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean. But the fact is that the northern fleet, the smallest in the Soviet navy at the end of World War II, is now the biggest-the superfleet of a supernavy...
Operating out of ice-free Murmansk, the northern fleet has an estimated 560 ships, including 160 submarines, more than 65 of them nuclear-powered (but not counting sizable forces in the Baltic, plus the East German and Polish navies). By contrast, the entire U.S. Atlantic Fleet has 358 ships, of which 40 to 50 are assigned to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Since 1968, the U.S. command has been cut back 25% in ships and 19% in men, and it is scheduled to lose another ten ships by next summer. Says Norway's Rear Admiral Magne Braadland...
...would be to mine the exit from the Baltic-a move that would require approval from the Danish Parliament. The Soviets now regard the Baltic as virtually a Cornmunist sea. On a "goodwill" call in Copenhagen last August, Soviet Vice Admiral L.V. Mizhin, deputy commander of the Soviet Baltic fleet, pointedly complained that an American cruiser had shown up in the Baltic Sea, and that West Germany had intensified its naval exercises there. The Soviets are on the verge of achieving their most concrete gain to date in Iceland, which is known as "the cork in the bottle...
...estimated ten days to two weeks for U.S. reinforcements to reach the northern flank, ten to 20 days for Britain's troops, and 30 days for Canada's. That assumes, of course, that they could even reach their destination through waters controlled by the Soviet northern fleet. Thus the real threat posed by Russia's dominance in the northern seas is to NATO's credibility and perhaps, in the end, to the alliance's unity...
...took power in 1949, America's initial reaction was a hands-off policy. In January 1950, Truman made his now famous promise not to "pursue a course which will lead to involvement in the civil conflict in China." Yet when the Korean war broke out, Truman ordered the Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Straits and established the pattern of massive American military aid to Chiang Kai-shek's regime...