1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:05,440 Because the Americans believe K-129 contains a treasure trove 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:07,800 of Soviet weaponry and intelligence, 3 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:12,560 as well as evidence suggesting it was firing its missiles when it sank... 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,640 ..President Nixon orders the sub to be raised. 5 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:24,280 But the obstacles to doing it are enormous, 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,240 and so are the consequences if they get caught. 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:31,000 It's illegal to salvage somebody else's military war material. 8 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,000 You're talking about a situation that could very likely start a nuclear war, 9 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:36,960 so even if you can figure out how to do it, you have to do it in secret. 10 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:39,760 And raising a 7-million-pound submarine 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:45,080 from three miles down on the ocean floor, in secret, sounds crazy. 12 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:50,000 We've never salvaged any submarine below a few hundred feet. 13 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:51,640 Could we get it? 14 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:55,160 Most people's reaction would be, like, "No way." 15 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,560 But, because that submarine has nuclear missiles on it, 16 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,520 and we knew from the photographs at least one of those missiles is intact, 17 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:04,000 plus everything else that you might want on a submarine, 18 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:06,840 like, "Where are the weak spots? "What kind of steel are they using? 19 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,200 "What's the radio gear like? 20 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:11,520 "What's their crypto gear like?" 21 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:13,520 All of these things are valuable. 22 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:20,480 Because the project requires speed and absolute secrecy, 23 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:22,920 the President takes it away from the Navy 24 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:25,200 and hands it to the CIA. 25 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,640 The CIA has the ability to do a lot of things that the military can't. 26 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:31,160 They can do it more efficiently and do it more quickly. 27 00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:33,120 They have less regulations to go through. 28 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,720 JOSH DEAN: So then they form a hand-picked group of people 29 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:40,560 taken from the CIA, within its own Special Projects Group, 30 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:42,640 which is the most secret of the secrets, 31 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,400 and they start spit-balling ideas like, "How do we do it? 32 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:48,680 "How do we pick up a submarine, in secret?" 33 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:53,840 The CIA Special Projects Group decides on an audacious strategy. 34 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,840 The CIA launches a dual-layered program. 35 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,200 The engineering piece, which is go and build the ship 36 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:02,520 and the systems that are going to pick up the submarine, 37 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:04,200 and then the second company 38 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:06,800 is going to go out and convince the world that it's a mining ship. 39 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,600 They name the covert operation Project Azorian 40 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:15,120 and give it a cover story so outlandish no-one doubts it. 41 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:21,160 It hires Howard Hughes to front the construction of Glomar Explorer, 42 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:25,400 a mining ship secretly capable of raising K-129. 43 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:27,640 Part of selling this story was Howard Hughes. 44 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:31,960 I mean, Howard Hughes was a larger-than-life character. 45 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,720 JOSH DEAN: He's that crazy, eccentric guy. 46 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,520 You know, he built the giant wooden airplane. 47 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,320 He's a patriot. He loves America. He hates the media. 48 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:43,520 Of course he would build a ship, 49 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,840 take it out into the middle of the ocean, and start mining. 50 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,760 KENNETH SEWELL: Getting him involved brought a lot of credibility. 51 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:53,320 If anybody could pull this off, it was Hughes. 52 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:57,800 Basically the CIA is going to send black money to Hughes. 53 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,440 Hughes will then, in the open, hire Global Marine 54 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:02,080 to build the Glomar Explorer. 55 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:07,960 In the four years between 1969 and 1973, 56 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:10,040 Hughes constructs what is hailed as 57 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,280 the most advanced mining vessel in the world. 58 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:17,480 But the CIA must also come up with a credible cover story for it. 59 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:19,800 So, they start spit-balling ideas again. 60 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,560 Well, what would explain a ship that's parked out there? 61 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,120 And someone suggests that within the mining industry 62 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:26,760 people were starting to talk about 63 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:28,520 these things called manganese nodules, 64 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:31,280 which were conglomerations of rare Earth minerals 65 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:33,960 that are in high concentrations on the bottom of the ocean. 66 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:35,720 And it's the perfect cover story. 67 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:38,360 Literally, there was a division 68 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,280 which had geologists and oceanographers and PR guys, 69 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:44,120 and it would go to conferences and give talks 70 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:46,000 about Howard Hughes and his mining ship. 71 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,320 The lengths the CIA goes to are astounding, 72 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,560 including hiring a Hollywood star, Richard Anderson, 73 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:55,880 from the Six Million Dollar Man TV series, 74 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,160 to make an industrial video to sell the mining community 75 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,400 on the Glomar's commercial possibilities. 76 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:04,280 I'm now aboard what is probably 77 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,880 the most technologically advanced seagoing vessel in the world today. 78 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,960 Global Marine has invited you aboard the Glomar Explorer 79 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,360 to show you how this ship can work in a hostile ocean environment 80 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,240 in waters as deep as 18,000 feet. 81 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:22,480 JOSH DEAN: Well, as far as we know, 82 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,280 this is the biggest CIA covert operation that they've ever run. 83 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:27,920 I mean, the scale of it is just audacious and epic. 84 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:29,560 A lot of engineers will tell you 85 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,520 that this ranks alongside, if not surpassing, the moon landing, 86 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:34,160 in terms of difficulty. 87 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:36,680 After sailing from Long Beach, California, 88 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:40,840 the Glomar Explorer arrives over the site of K-129. 89 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,160 On July 11, 1974, it begins work. 90 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:51,560 The inside of the vessel holds a secret 91 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:53,920 which has nothing to do with mining - 92 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:55,560 the moon pool, 93 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,080 a cavernous space with doors opening in its bottom 94 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:03,320 through which K-129 will be secretly raised into the ship. 95 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,480 300 lengths of steel pipe, 96 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,240 each piece as long as a Greyhound bus, 97 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,040 are adjoined to form the umbilical cord 98 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:16,800 between the ship and the multi-clawed vehicle nicknamed Clementine. 99 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:22,480 It will take Clementine two days to reach K-129, 100 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,040 17,000 feet below, 101 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:29,800 the equivalent of over 14 Empire State Buildings deep. 102 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:31,920 The water pressure on the ocean floor 103 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:37,240 is comparable to having 50 Boeing 747s stacked on top of you. 104 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:39,800 Twice, while the Glomar Explorer is on station, 105 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,440 Soviet ships come right up to it. 106 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:45,760 Twice. They flew a helicopter over the top. They took pictures. 107 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,720 If the Russians discover the Glomar's real purpose, 108 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,120 they will consider it an act of war. 109 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:57,520 And if they do, there are no nearby American forces to protect it. 110 00:05:57,680 --> 00:05:59,600 And then they went away, because they were like, 111 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:01,520 "Hey, that's just Howard Hughes's mining ship." 112 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,160 Then, on August 9, 1974, 113 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:09,320 the same day Richard Nixon resigns the presidency 114 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,240 because of the Watergate scandal, 115 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:13,680 they begin raising K-129. 116 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:15,400 It's like the arcade game 117 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:17,920 where you drop the thing down and grab the teddy bear, 118 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:20,040 but this teddy bear's, like, a huge submarine. 119 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:24,440 The claw goes down, they grab the submarine... 120 00:06:29,280 --> 00:06:30,880 ..they begin the lift. 121 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:32,520 Everyone's like, "Oh, my God. 122 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:34,920 "I can't believe it. After all this time, it really did work." 123 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:38,880 And then suddenly, disaster. 124 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,120 About a third of the way up, 125 00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:45,480 one of the fingers on the claw snaps. 126 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,640 Over half the submarine falls down to the ocean floor, 127 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:52,280 one mile below. 128 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:54,360 So what you ended up with was the smaller portion 129 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:56,800 which was not nearly as valuable. 130 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:58,880 I mean, they really want the missile. 131 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:00,760 Secondarily, they really want the crypto. 132 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:03,840 However, what they do find 133 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,840 is a grim reminder of the disaster's human cost. 134 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,080 The retrieved section contains human remains, 135 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:16,320 including the bodies of numerous Soviet crewmen. 136 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:18,440 All are highly radioactive. 137 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:25,400 Then in March 1975, 138 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:29,760 the CIA's top-secret, billion-dollar, covert operation 139 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:31,840 becomes anything but secret. 140 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:33,960 Good evening. 141 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,240 All across the country today Americans were debating 142 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:38,760 the value of the Glomar Explorer, 143 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,600 the ship Howard Hughes built for the CIA, 144 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:45,440 a $250 million intelligence-gathering project 145 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,920 to raise from the ocean floor a Russian submarine. 146 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:53,200 JOSH DEAN: When the program is leaked, 147 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,040 the Soviets are furious, for good reason. 148 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:01,760 They felt the Americans had no legal right 149 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,120 to raise a foreign submarine in neutral waters. 150 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:12,720 Especially since it was already clear 151 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:14,840 that this was a Russian submarine. 152 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:17,480 Can you imagine just what the reaction would be 153 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,600 if we lost one of our Polaris or Poseidon submarines 154 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,040 and we did not know where and how we had lost it? 155 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:26,000 JOSH DEAN: They're also embarrassed. 156 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,120 They don't want their people to know that, "We've lost a submarine 157 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:33,000 "with, like, 100 of your guys on it and we didn't tell you about it." 158 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:34,680 So, that's the first thing that happened. 159 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:37,400 And then, "The Americans built a ship, 160 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:39,040 "went out into the middle of the Pacific, 161 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:41,160 "and stole it right out from under our noses, 162 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:43,160 "and we were right there." 163 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:44,880 Can you imagine the blowback on that? 164 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:49,400 (SHOUTS IN RUSSIAN) 165 00:08:49,560 --> 00:08:51,640 The Soviets are not going to take this very well. 166 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:53,680 It's certainly an act of war. 167 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:00,680 The Hunt for Red October film, based on Tom Clancy's book, 168 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:04,480 exposes the top-secret world of submarine warfare. 169 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:08,000 But even Clancy couldn't have imagined the astonishing lengths 170 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:10,320 some now claim the CIA goes to 171 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:12,400 in its efforts to deceive the Russians 172 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:14,600 about what intelligence it retrieves 173 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,680 from their sunken submarine, K-129. 174 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:24,640 As the Soviets struggle to respond 175 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:26,840 to having their submarine stolen from under them, 176 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:29,440 at home, the CIA operation 177 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:31,880 quickly becomes a lightning rod for criticism 178 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:35,320 of its extraordinary expense, and seeming failure, 179 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:39,120 to retrieve the most valuable intelligence from K-129. 180 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:42,920 A third of the submarine was recovered 181 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:45,680 that contained the bodies of 70 drowned Russians. 182 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:49,520 The other two-thirds containing nuclear missiles and code machinery 183 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:52,520 broke off and fell back into the bottom of the sea. 184 00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:56,480 But did the CIA really fail in its mission? 185 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,760 Shocking new revelations suggest otherwise. 186 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:02,840 According to Kenneth Sewell and John Craven, 187 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:08,520 the CIA employs an ingenious ruse to recover the entire submarine, 188 00:10:08,680 --> 00:10:11,960 and to fool the Russians into thinking they haven't. 189 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:14,800 The Glomar the Soviets had been monitoring 190 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:18,240 was actually a near-identical decoy-ship 191 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:20,480 sent by the CIA to the area 192 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:23,520 where the Soviets believed their sub had sunk. 193 00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:28,200 All along, they'd been watching the wrong ship. 194 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:30,120 KENNETH SEWELL: They watched it like a hawk. 195 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,520 But it wasn't actually recovering anything. 196 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:35,560 Sewell believes that, unbeknownst to the Russians, 197 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:40,240 the real Glomar Explorer had been parked over the wreck of the K-129 198 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:44,000 discovered by the Halibut crew 400 miles south, 199 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:46,160 where it recovered the entire sub, 200 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,280 including all its intelligence material. 201 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:53,520 It fooled everybody, and it also reinforced the con 202 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:55,240 that we only recovered part of it, 203 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:57,520 when we actually recovered everything. 204 00:10:57,680 --> 00:10:59,160 If this is the case, 205 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,920 the Americans not only recover the sub and all its intelligence, 206 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:04,920 they trick the Russians into believing 207 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,840 that they dropped it all back onto the ocean floor. 208 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:11,040 I mean, the best intelligence you can get 209 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:13,160 is intelligence that the enemy doesn't know you have. 210 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:15,040 It was a perfect operation. 211 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:20,600 For the CIA, the sub is a treasure trove. 212 00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:23,800 Not only do they find the crypto gear and logbooks, 213 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:28,480 they also find further evidence of what led to the boat sinking. 214 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,800 Captain Kobzar and his first officer's anxiety 215 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,800 about the sinister passengers may not have been misplaced. 216 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:39,400 Ken Sewell, author and US Navy Nuclear Submariner 217 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:41,640 makes a bold claim. 218 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:45,040 The KGB was behind the attack by the K-129. 219 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:49,600 They knew that money from their economy went to the military 220 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:51,440 and not to the people. 221 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,640 They knew the Soviet Union was going to collapse. 222 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,640 And they knew the United States was approaching a point 223 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,120 where they would have had first-strike capability. 224 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,280 The ability to take out all the nuclear weapons 225 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:07,840 of the Soviet Union in a single strike, including the submarines. 226 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:13,040 Sewell believes a small group atop the KGB, 227 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:15,320 fearing for the Soviet Union's survival, 228 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,680 had conceived an ingenious but apocalyptic plan 229 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:20,880 to save their failing state. 230 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:25,320 They intend to dupe their two biggest enemies, 231 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:27,560 the Americans and Chinese, 232 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:32,360 into fighting a catastrophic nuclear war against each other. 233 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:40,680 The first stage of the plan was to commandeer a Golf II submarine 234 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:42,800 that was identical to the two submarines 235 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,000 that Russia had sold to the Chinese. 236 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:51,720 Next, the KGB turns to their secret elite commando force, 237 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:53,480 called the OSNAZ, 238 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:57,800 and puts it aboard this submarine, K-129. 239 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:01,280 The OSNAZ commandos assigned to the K-129 240 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:03,920 worked for the KGB and the KGB only. 241 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,200 These were highly trained individuals. 242 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:09,960 They were intelligent, they were ruthless. 243 00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:11,840 They were the ultimate killers. 244 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,360 They are also the mysterious passengers 245 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,960 who had joined K-129's mission at the last minute. 246 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:21,680 Then, from a specific location on the surface, 247 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:23,320 they would fire the missile, 248 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:25,840 destroying the base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. 249 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,440 This was the exact type of missile that they had sold the Chinese. 250 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,280 Everything would have pointed back to China 251 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:35,920 as being the perpetrator of this attack, 252 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:40,000 which would've triggered a massive retaliation by the United States. 253 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:43,040 MAN: Go, go, go! 254 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:44,320 Fire! 255 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,840 In the end, Russia takes out both enemies without having to fight. 256 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:55,400 It was a perfect opportunity to save their Soviet Union. 257 00:13:55,560 --> 00:13:58,440 When you start to look at it in that light, 258 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:01,360 then this isn't as outrageous as it seems. 259 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:03,840 But the attack didn't happen. 260 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,080 There was no missile launch. 261 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:09,520 So what did happen aboard K-129? 262 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:15,560 The action that takes place on the Red October submarine 263 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:18,640 had audiences on the edge of their seats. 264 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:20,320 But over 50 years later, 265 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:22,280 what can be said for certain 266 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,880 about the action onboard the doomed K-129? 267 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:33,080 No-one will ever know for sure what happened precisely on the K-129. 268 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:35,440 There were no survivors. 269 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,360 However, Ken Sewell's version of events 270 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:41,800 is supported by considerable circumstantial evidence. 271 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:43,440 It is not, however, 272 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:47,200 supported by either the Russian or US authorities, 273 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:49,080 at least not publicly. 274 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:55,000 We do know that the submarine sailed to its normal patrol box. 275 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:58,240 And, at the point, the likely scenario is 276 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:02,240 the KGB officers presented the captain with new orders. 277 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,720 According to Sewell, Captain Kobzar is instructed 278 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:11,000 to sail through K-129's officially assigned patrol area, 279 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:14,040 and head 400 miles south towards Hawaii. 280 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:18,280 I feel there was initially very little resistance to the new orders 281 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:19,920 from the OSNAZ commandos. 282 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,320 Most people at that time in the Soviet Union 283 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:26,480 were pretty much wary of the KGB and did what they were told. 284 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:30,080 Two days later, as the submarine nears its launch point, 285 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,920 the OSNAZ commandos make their move. 286 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:37,600 They demand its missiles be readied for launching. 287 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,400 There would have been a point, I think, when the OSNAZ commandos 288 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:49,640 would have had to use force 289 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:51,960 to make the crew bend to their will. 290 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:08,080 We know that they found bodies of 40 crewmen in the forward torpedo room, 291 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:10,880 so that indicates they were probably using it 292 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:12,840 as kind of like a holding cell. 293 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,600 At this point they start the pre-launch procedure, 294 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:21,040 fuel the rocket, run the checks, surface the submarine. 295 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,440 The OSNAZ commandos were trained submariners. 296 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:26,240 They were experts in nuclear weapons. 297 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:28,880 So these weren't just killers, 298 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,000 they were pretty smart people too. 299 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:32,640 But even with this training, 300 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:36,680 the OSNAZ commandos can't launch the missiles by themselves. 301 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,080 The fail-safe systems used on Soviet ballistic missile submarines, 302 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:43,520 were designed to prevent the same type of rogue captain scenario 303 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,400 that was depicted in the film Hunt for Red October. 304 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:50,600 In the film, arming the weapons systems requires two keys - 305 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:52,240 one from the Captain, 306 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:54,800 and one from an independent political officer 307 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:56,920 who answers directly to Moscow. 308 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,720 In the case of K-129, however, 309 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:03,160 it's not the Captain who's gone rogue, 310 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:04,920 it's the OSNAZ commandos 311 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:08,720 following the orders of a secretive group atop the KGB. 312 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:12,600 And instead of keys, there is a three-part code system. 313 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,000 The fail-safe system in Soviet submarines 314 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,680 were specifically designed to prevent a rogue launch. 315 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:22,840 It was virtually impossible to launch that missile 316 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,280 without the codes from other sources. 317 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:27,560 There would be three codes to be entered, 318 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:29,360 two that the KGB would have had. 319 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:33,960 The captain wouldn't have the codes that were sent by the government. 320 00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:36,360 He wouldn't have the codes that were sent by the Navy. 321 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:39,600 But he, and he alone, 322 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:41,560 did have the final part of the code 323 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,480 needed to activate the missile launch system. 324 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:47,160 I suspect that they would have put a gun to his head, 325 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:48,880 or start killing crewmen. 326 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,240 He's between a rock and a hard place now. 327 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:55,520 He puts the codes in, he starts a nuclear war. 328 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:00,680 He doesn't put them in, they kill all of his crew. 329 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:04,320 But what the OSNAZ commandos don't realise is, 330 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:06,960 Captain Kobzar has a third option. 331 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:14,760 The story of the K-129 does sound like a Clancy movie. 332 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,360 I mean you've got a dedicated submarine crew, 333 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:21,960 ballistic missile taken over by KGB commandos, 334 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:24,480 that would have started a war between the United States and China. 335 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,360 But unlike The Hunt for Red October story 336 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:32,200 of a disenchanted Soviet captain trying to defect to the US, 337 00:18:32,360 --> 00:18:35,720 Sewell's theory paints a more menacing picture. 338 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,320 K-129's Captain, Vladimir Kobzar, 339 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:44,040 now faces a stark choice - 340 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,200 enter the final part of the code 341 00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:49,000 to launch a nuclear strike on Pearl Harbor, 342 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:54,960 or refuse to do it and watch his crew be shot, one by one. 343 00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:56,680 He makes his decision. 344 00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:04,480 But the missile doesn't launch. 345 00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:07,040 Kobzar hasn't entered the firing code, 346 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,560 but one that causes the missile to self-destruct 347 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:12,840 inside the missile silo. 348 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:14,840 All of a sudden, you have all this energy 349 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:16,640 blowing the bottom of the submarine out 350 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:22,160 and send this superheated gas through the adjoining compartments. 351 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:31,480 If Kobzar was gambling that K-129 would somehow survive the blast, 352 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:33,520 it is a losing bet. 353 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:35,880 It would have been just hell on earth. 354 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:38,600 I mean, you've got men dying of, you know, from impact. 355 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,800 You've got men being burned to death, you've got men drowning. 356 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:43,960 The only mercy was it was probably pretty fast. 357 00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:45,680 Fatally damaged, 358 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:51,320 K-129 starts its long journey to the ocean bottom, three miles below. 359 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:53,320 I personally believe that Captain Kobzar 360 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:55,600 realised this was an unauthorised launch, 361 00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,440 and it was something that was going to result in the death 362 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:00,080 of hundreds of millions of people. 363 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:03,240 So he very stoically just put the wrong codes in, 364 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,320 pushed the button and that was it. 365 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:07,520 (ALARM SOUNDS, MEN SHOUT) 366 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:12,000 I think he probably was the one key element that stopped a nuclear war. 367 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:14,240 Captain Vladimir Kobzar 368 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:18,840 might very well be one of the world's greatest unsung heroes. 369 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,680 But in spite of the news stories about the Americans raising the sub, 370 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:28,360 including claims that some of the bodies of the Russian sailors 371 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:30,000 had been found, 372 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:35,880 the Soviet navy refuses to even acknowledge that the men are lost. 373 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:39,200 It wasn't a priority for them, the human factor. 374 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:42,040 It was just, you know, these were sailors, 375 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:44,280 they went to sea, sometimes bad things happen. 376 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:49,360 This attitude weighs heavily on all the missing sailor's relatives. 377 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:53,320 They had to live with that, you know, nagging question of, 378 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,160 "What really happened to our husbands, our sons?" 379 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:01,360 TRANSLATION: No-one would say anything, 380 00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:03,560 there were no announcements. 381 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:05,920 We waited, we searched, 382 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,040 we hoped they would find them and rescue them. 383 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,320 Over a year after the disappearance of K-129, 384 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:18,880 Irina Zhuravina, wife of First Officer Sasha Zhuravin, 385 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:21,440 is contacted about the fate of her husband. 386 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:23,920 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 387 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:29,400 TRANSLATION: I found out about my husband, Sasha, in a terrible way. 388 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,040 I received an anonymous phone call 389 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:34,040 and a female voice said, 390 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:37,280 "Your husband has died," and hung up. 391 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,080 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 392 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:42,880 TRANSLATION: This was upsetting and unfair, 393 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,760 because everyone was hopeful that whatever had happened to them, 394 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,160 they would somehow still return. 395 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,360 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 396 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,360 TRANSLATION: I remember The New York Times article. 397 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,160 The retrieval of the boat was tragic. 398 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:02,800 But even then, the authorities said, 399 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:06,200 "Keep your mouth under lock and key." 400 00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:10,080 They maintained that the submarine had returned. 401 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:15,840 Unfortunately, it was, and still is, a time of continuous lies. 402 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,960 Back in the US, a strange thing happens. 403 00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:21,840 In spite of the press stories, 404 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,520 the CIA also refuses to acknowledge any aspects of it. 405 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:28,200 So the story leaks. 406 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:31,480 Why would the CIA then not acknowledge this happened? 407 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,520 Well, it was in the papers. How can you not acknowledge it? 408 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:37,920 When you keep this under wraps, people are actually happier. 409 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,120 We don't really want to know that we came close to nuclear war. 410 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,280 I mean, it just raises the tension level. 411 00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:45,240 So you can imagine that Kissinger 412 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:46,880 and his counterpart in the Soviet Union 413 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:48,520 are having back-channel conversations 414 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:50,240 where they're just like, "OK, what can we do 415 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:52,240 "to not go to war over this?" 416 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,480 "OK, you America, don't talk about it publicly. 417 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:59,600 "Don't rub our noses in it, 'cause this makes us look like chumps. 418 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:04,000 "So, we're not going to escalate tensions, 419 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,040 "but you're not gonna talk about it, 420 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:07,680 "and you're not gonna embarrass us." 421 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:10,440 But there may be yet another reason 422 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:14,440 why the Americans keep quiet about their many discoveries 423 00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,320 regarding the fate of K-129. 424 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,000 They want to exploit 425 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:23,000 the growing tensions between the Chinese and the Russians. 426 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:25,720 Kissinger sees an opportunity 427 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,560 to leverage the information he has about K-129's secret mission. 428 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:35,080 He begins a series of clandestine diplomatic missions to China. 429 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,560 KENNETH SEWELL: I personally believe Kissinger went in there 430 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:39,480 and, said, "Look, you know, 431 00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:41,640 "the Russians tried to start a war between us. 432 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,840 "We're not really the bad guys here." 433 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,280 The US strategy, according to Ken Sewell, 434 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,440 is to get the Chinese to focus even more of their military spending 435 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,080 on the Russians, 436 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,600 and thus, get the Russians to spend yet more of their dwindling budget 437 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:57,240 on the Chinese. 438 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:00,720 KENNETH SEWELL: There's a couple of things came from that. 439 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,200 First off, Mao started further increasing the tensions along the border 440 00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:07,360 to the point where Russia threatened a nuclear strike against China 441 00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:09,560 if they didn't back down. 442 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,360 The other thing is, 443 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,640 it kicked open the door for the United States to go into China. 444 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,400 And next thing you know, we're playing ping pong with them, 445 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:19,160 we're having cultural exchanges, 446 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,880 and it just changed the whole course of diplomatic relations 447 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:25,520 between these two countries. 448 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:33,400 But there may yet be a further reason 449 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:37,480 for the continued secrecy surrounding K-129. 450 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,840 It harkens back to the disappearance of the American attack submarine, 451 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,640 Scorpion, 10 weeks after K-129's demise. 452 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,560 The Americans believe it may have been sunk by the Soviets 453 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:52,960 in a tit-for-tat ambush. 454 00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:56,600 It is a situation that threatens to ignite a nuclear war. 455 00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,960 In a confusion of motives worthy of The Hunt For Red October, 456 00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:07,360 the Americans suspect the Russians of sinking the USS Scorpion 457 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:10,520 in the belief that the Americans sunk K-129. 458 00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:13,480 JOSH DEAN: The tit-for-tat thing? 459 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,200 Yeah, I mean, both countries lost a nuclear submarine 460 00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:17,840 in the same year, 461 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,880 and under circumstances that remain mysterious. 462 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,040 The Russians thought they were justified. 463 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,880 It could have very well escalated into a full-blown nuclear conflict. 464 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,400 Now, let's say they do sink the Scorpion in retaliation. 465 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,680 Would we maybe just let that go 466 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,360 because of an accidental collision with a US Navy submarine? 467 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:44,640 And I can imagine why that would be 468 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,520 one of the most closely-held secrets of the Cold War. 469 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,680 Because what's the one thing that neither side wants to happen? 470 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:53,120 A war. 471 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:54,760 A war means everybody loses. 472 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,400 The planet loses. 473 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,840 KENNETH SEWELL: Time and time again when I'm talking to people, 474 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,040 they've said, "You know, the lives of 99 men, tragic as it may be, 475 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,640 "are not worth the risk of a nuclear war." 476 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,000 But the lives of men were lost. 477 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:13,400 Submariners. 478 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,240 Real people with family and friends grieving for them. 479 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,680 Not so different than the Russians on K-129. 480 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:24,600 MAN: If one my sons on a submarine was lost at sea 481 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,240 and some other country found him, or found the wreck, 482 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,120 I'd like to know about it, as a parent. 483 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:35,200 And in the case of three families 484 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:39,240 of the Russian submarine sailors we identified on K-129, 485 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,600 I wanted them to know where their sons were. 486 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,200 This footage has only recently been declassified, 487 00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:57,480 and the copy seen here is Jim Reeb's unedited original. 488 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:00,080 A message came in informing the ship 489 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:01,920 they were going to conduct a burial ceremony 490 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,320 for the Russian sailors that we had recovered. 491 00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,160 They said the day before, 492 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,160 "Anybody would like to participate as a pallbearer 493 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,040 "put your name in this jug." 494 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,400 And every crew member on the ship volunteered. 495 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,680 I was directed to be the Russian narrator during that service. 496 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,920 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN ON VIDEO) 497 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:37,760 The Russian sailors are buried at sea in Soviet tradition. 498 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:39,400 The ritual is filmed, 499 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,600 in hopes that should the Cold War ever come to an end, 500 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,840 there is proof of American respect for the unfortunate dead. 501 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,920 I was honoured immensely that I was going to be a participant. 502 00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:00,160 They were from a different country, a different ideology, 503 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,960 but they were really brother submariners to me. 504 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:05,360 (CONTINUES SPEAKING RUSSIAN ON VIDEO) 505 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,760 (RUSSIAN MUSIC PLAYS ON VIDEO) 506 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,240 We wanted to be able to show them we treated them with dignity. 507 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:33,280 (MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 508 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:35,480 TRANSLATION: When the Americans privately reached out 509 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:37,560 to the Soviet navy to let them know 510 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:41,080 they had lifted the submarine and discovered the bodies, 511 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,160 the Soviets responded by saying, 512 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:46,640 "We didn't lose the sub." 513 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:49,960 Even though it was obviously a Russian submarine. 514 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,200 We basically refused our dead, 515 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,160 and at that moment the Americans showed humanity. 516 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,160 MAN: (ON VIDEO) Unto almighty God, we commend the souls... 517 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:03,880 It isn't until after the fall of communism 518 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,840 that the Russian navy finally recognises the sacrifices 519 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,600 of K-129's crewmen and their families. 520 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,000 (IRINA ZHURAVINA SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 521 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:24,040 TRANSLATION: 30 years of deep silence about our submarine. 522 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:26,320 And after 30 years, 523 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,840 the whole crew was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. 524 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,280 Sasha was also awarded a medal of bravery, 525 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:39,720 and another medal of Peter the Great. 526 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:44,000 Then, I received a medal for being a sailor's wife. 527 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:50,720 But all of these honours came too late. 528 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,520 MAN: (ON VIDEO) We commend the souls of these departed Soviet sailors 529 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:56,880 and we commit their bodies to the sea. 530 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:00,400 What no-one realises at the time 531 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:05,920 is that this funeral video will play a part in ending the Cold War. 532 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:10,080 In October 1992, 533 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,880 24 years after the sinking of K-129, 534 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,720 and just three years after the release of the film 535 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,360 Hunt For Red October, 536 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,560 CIA Director Robert Gates makes an unprecedented trip to Moscow 537 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,520 to extend the hand of peace to the Russians. 538 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,400 He was the first ever CIA director to meet with a Russian president, 539 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,200 Boris Yeltsin. 540 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:32,720 He gave him the video tape of the burial ceremony 541 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:36,360 for the Russian sailors that they had recovered. 542 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:38,000 MAN: (ON VIDEO) Unto almighty God, 543 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,080 we commend the souls of these departed Soviet sailors. 544 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:45,480 I was told that when Yeltsin viewed the tape, he cried. 545 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,120 He really cried. And, uh... 546 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:53,360 ..he cried, I think, for sorrow for the loss of Soviet sailors, 547 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:57,080 but also because of the poignancy of the ceremony. 548 00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:58,760 Commence the hoist. 549 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,880 (JAMES REEB TRANSLATES INTO RUSSIAN) 550 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:04,160 Two superpowers, 551 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:09,200 each with very different views of what happened onboard K-129, 552 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:11,360 can agree on one thing... 553 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:14,320 JAMES REEB: Amen. 554 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:16,080 ..the tragedy of the mission. 555 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,720 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 556 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:24,040 TRANSLATION: In spite of the complex and raw situation 557 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:25,680 there was never animosity 558 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:27,720 between the Russian and American submariners. 559 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,920 There was rivalry, yes, 560 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,040 but no animosity. 561 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,920 And this was a great example of that. 562 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,760 The video marks the end of the Cold War 563 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,440 and heralds in a new era of openness and detente. 564 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:52,800 What it doesn't do is definitively explain what happened onboard K-129. 565 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,200 Even after I've written a book and three other people have written a book, 566 00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,720 it's still kind of a mystery and we're still talking about things we don't know the answer to. 567 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,120 While indisputable facts are scarce, 568 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,800 theories about what sunk K-129 abound. 569 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:14,080 But now, I'm sure we're going to talk about the rogue sub theory 570 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,200 and that Hunt For Red October was inspired by the story 571 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:18,520 about a Russian ballistic missile submarine 572 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:20,720 that was launching a missile at Pearl Harbor. 573 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:23,320 But there's a big problem with it. 574 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,400 It only works if the missile can actually reach Pearl Harbor. 575 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:31,280 And the range of the SSN 5 was well inside 576 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:32,960 where the actual wreck was. 577 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:35,720 So if that's true, then they were really bad at their jobs 578 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:37,640 because the missile wouldn't have hit it. 579 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:39,280 To this day, officially, 580 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:44,720 the Russian navy also doesn't believe that K-129 went rogue. 581 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:46,360 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 582 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:48,560 TRANSLATION: Our navy's version of what happened 583 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:50,520 continues to be that K-129 sank 584 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:54,760 as a result of a collision with the American submarine Swordfish. 585 00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:58,360 The Americans, however, 586 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,200 remain equally adamant this isn't the case. 587 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,440 Balderdash, that's what I say. 588 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,080 There was no evidence at all. 589 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:10,640 Yes, they ran into some ice floes and pulled in for repairs. 590 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,160 But if K-129 wasn't sunk by Swordfish, 591 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:15,800 what did sink it? 592 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,880 My personal belief, based on what I've seen, 593 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,080 is that there was some kind of accident 594 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:23,200 that occurred during a test-firing exercise. 595 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:24,840 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 596 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,400 (ALARM SOUNDS, MEN SHOUT) 597 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:33,000 But other than not believing the rogue sub theory, like, 598 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,320 I can't totally discount any of the other stuff. 599 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,480 I mean, we're talking about spies. 600 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,960 We're talking about the world's best liars, right? 601 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,600 All this reasoning changes, however, 602 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:45,920 if the 'world's best liars' 603 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,760 have disguised the actual location of K-129. 604 00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,880 A lot of people still believe, you know, a lot of these cover stories. 605 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:56,360 You have to look at this logically. You have to look at the facts. 606 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:58,600 You know, we have three pieces of hard evidence 607 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,240 that puts that sub 370 miles from Pearl Harbor. 608 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:05,920 One, the missile plume... 609 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,880 ..that was picked up by the satellite showed it to be there. 610 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:18,760 And two, the oil slick contained high-grade, highly enriched uranium. 611 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:20,400 And, finally, three, 612 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,680 the SOSUS tapes found a noise 613 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,240 associated with an explosion on the surface. 614 00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:28,440 But even today, 615 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,120 there is no agreed upon definitive answer 616 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,760 to what happened onboard K-129. 617 00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:36,400 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 618 00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:38,640 TRANSLATION: Every submarine accident 619 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:40,640 has at least four or five versions. 620 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,160 The problem is that there are few direct facts 621 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,720 because most go down with the submarine. 622 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,960 For me, K-129 is more than just a disaster. 623 00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,560 It's a mysterious and symbolic phenomenon 624 00:34:56,720 --> 00:34:58,760 at the epicentre of what was happening 625 00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:02,160 between the Soviet and American navies. 626 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,120 And what of Tom Clancy? 627 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,840 How does he get his hands on all that classified information 628 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:14,240 about Crazy Ivans, torpedo launch systems... 629 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:16,120 (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) 630 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:20,880 ..and Russia and American submarine design and battle strategy? 631 00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:23,680 For decades, this information has been known only 632 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:26,080 to security-cleared operatives. 633 00:35:26,240 --> 00:35:30,320 Even serious journalists investigating K-129 634 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:32,240 continue to be stonewalled. 635 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:33,880 The CIA arranged a meeting 636 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,480 between me and the bureaucrat who runs the office 637 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,440 that decides what gets declassified and what doesn't. 638 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,120 And this bureaucrat sat across from me 639 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,600 with like a, just a...flat expression on his face, listening. 640 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:47,280 And he was just basically like, "Yeah, no. 641 00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:49,280 "You're not gonna get anywhere." 642 00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,560 Oh, my God, the bureaucrats who protect secrets 643 00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:55,640 are some of the worst and most humourless people imaginable. 644 00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:01,160 Yet somehow Clancy does get his hands on top-secret material. 645 00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:03,640 But how? 646 00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:07,360 Many believe the answer lies in his ability 647 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,440 to get people to open up to him. 648 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:11,560 He was so charming in those days. 649 00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:13,280 He really was charming. He was very funny. 650 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:14,920 He joked around a lot. 651 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,280 He was clearly friends with people in the Navy. 652 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,720 But finding classified material is one thing, 653 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,880 getting away with publishing it is another. 654 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:26,520 Some now suggest that 655 00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:29,840 Clancy's seeming freedom to divulge state secrets 656 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,080 came from deep within the US intelligence community. 657 00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:34,960 KENNETH SEWELL: The CIA does a number of books. 658 00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:36,600 They're called company books. 659 00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:38,400 When they need to have information released, 660 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,600 they get people like Clancy to write books 661 00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:45,360 under the permission, authorisation, of the agencies. 662 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:48,920 They basically are kind of part of the team. 663 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,040 I would not classify Tom Clancy as a spy. 664 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:54,600 Tom Clancy was an asset. 665 00:36:54,760 --> 00:37:00,320 Hunt For Red October was the perfect cover story for the K-129. 666 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:05,160 Soon, Clancy comes to the attention of the Secretary of the Navy, 667 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,880 John Lehman, during the Reagan years. 668 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:10,040 Lehman recognises in Clancy 669 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,920 an opportunity to turn the secrets game upside down. 670 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:15,720 I had always been an advocate 671 00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:18,720 of declassifying a lot more information. 672 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,600 It was a recurring debate that I had my whole tenure. 673 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,040 Obviously, there are some things that should be protected. 674 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:29,680 But we got to get as much of this 675 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,120 out into the store window as we possibly can 676 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:36,120 to demonstrate to the Soviets that they were going to lose. 677 00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:40,480 And if they tried to keep up with us that they would bankrupt themselves. 678 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:42,680 Lehman's revolutionary strategy 679 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:44,320 quickly becomes the catalyst 680 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:48,640 for a new kind of anti-Soviet psychological warfare. 681 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:52,160 To do it, he turns to some unlikely allies. 682 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:56,960 We worked with Hollywood and TV and print media. 683 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:01,480 We wanted the Soviets to see the reality 684 00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:04,640 and the morale, the professionalism. 685 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:06,480 And it was terrific. 686 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:10,840 And at the top of Lehman's list 687 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:15,560 is Tom Clancy and his Hunt for Red October. 688 00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:19,320 And Lehman is not alone in his desire to promote it. 689 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:21,040 President Reagan loved it. 690 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:25,520 He mentioned it several times, and that helped the sales. 691 00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:27,840 It also does something else. 692 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,960 It helps promote the Navy's new strategy. 693 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,640 And so, President Reagan wanted to meet Tom, 694 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,080 so he had a little lunch in the White House. 695 00:38:37,240 --> 00:38:38,960 And I sat next to Tom, 696 00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:43,200 because I was delighted that we had the Naval Institute publish it. 697 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,200 Popular culture was now being used by the American military 698 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:49,520 to break the Soviet's resolve. 699 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:51,680 The advanced technological world 700 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:53,760 portrayed in The Hunt For Red October, 701 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:55,560 demoralises the Russians. 702 00:38:55,720 --> 00:38:59,280 They simply don't have the budgets to catch up. 703 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:04,240 It sucked them into yet another bottomless pit of spending, 704 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:05,880 which helped to bankrupt them. 705 00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,600 That's really what happened. That's how the whole Cold War ended. 706 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:11,840 Over the course of many more novels, 707 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,040 Clancy becomes a mainstay in the Navy's campaign 708 00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,480 to intimidate America's enemies. 709 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:19,480 After Hunt for Red October, 710 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:21,480 why would you want to use him for anything else 711 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:23,120 except to keep writing novels 712 00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,520 and publicising and talking about how great the Navy is? 713 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:31,760 Why would we want to mess him up by asking him to be a spy? 714 00:39:33,240 --> 00:39:36,320 Clancy's revelations about military secrets 715 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,400 help lead to one of the Cold War's biggest naval victories, 716 00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:46,080 all without a shot, torpedo, or ICBM being fired. 717 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,480 Seen in this light, Clancy is more than just a novelist. 718 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,840 More than just an asset. 719 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,080 He's a hero. 720 00:39:57,240 --> 00:40:01,040 He couldn't serve. He couldn't join the Navy because his eyesight was terrible. 721 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,440 So they weren't gonna accept him into any of the armed forces. 722 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:06,080 Well, if he couldn't be them, 723 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:10,160 why not make this version of himself that could be one of them? 724 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,840 It was his way of serving. 725 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:15,720 At a closed-door speech delivered at the National Security Agency, 726 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:17,760 Clancy tacitly acknowledges 727 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:21,440 that his books aren't simply written as entertainment, 728 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:25,840 they also serve another important function. 729 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,640 Let me leave you with a thought. It's deterrence. 730 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,440 It's keeping a war from happening. 731 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:32,600 If a war happens, somebody screwed up. 732 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:34,240 Think about it. 733 00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,920 We can't deter the Russians if they don't know anything about us. 734 00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:40,000 They got to have something to be afraid of. 735 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,720 We got to expose a certain amount of information to the Russians if deterrence is gonna work. 736 00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,000 You can't make everything secret. Thank you. 737 00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:48,640 (APPLAUSE) 738 00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,000 Somehow The Hunt for Red October 739 00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:53,720 and its connection to the tragic events 740 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,400 that took place decades earlier on K-129 741 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:02,560 had combined to play a decisive part in the course of world history. 742 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:05,640 KENNETH SEWELL: The K-129 mission had a major impact on all of us 743 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:08,520 and the average person has no clue. 744 00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:10,480 Maybe, you know, a hundred years in the future, 745 00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:12,920 they'll look back and, you know, talk about this. 746 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,840 But I think we're a hell of a lot safer now. 747 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,160 And, uh, I don't think we would've gotten here 748 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,280 unless it was for the K-129 mission. 749 00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:22,680 Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2021