The Rickover Corpus: A digital archive of Admiral Rickover's speeches and memos
“Any comparison of the Soviet and U.S. Navy must be viewed from the context that we are a maritime power dependent upon being able to maintain sea lanes of communication necessary to conduct military operations overseas and to support our allies. The mission of our navy is a far more difficult one than that of the Soviets of denying us free use of the seas. We have given up any chance of matching the Soviet Navy in number of ships. Therefore the quality of our ships must be superior. It is axiom