By Admiral Sir John Woodward
I SHOULD PERHAPS DECLARE MY PERSONAL INTEREST IN this book, written by Patrick Robinson, who assisted me in the writing of my own autobiography back in 1991.
For Nimitz Class, he asked me for technical advice on submarine operations—a request for me to wear again the hat of Flag Officer Submarines, rather than that of the Falkland Islands Battle Group Commander.
He now informs me there is a senior retired admiral featured prominently within the pages of Nimitz Class who may be somewhat familiar both to me and to those who served under my command. However, I am happy to say that his fictional admiral does not coincide with my own personal view of myself. I’m not even sure I would have recognized him!
Nonetheless my purpose in writing these introductory words is to express my approval for this book, and the very real, you might say terrible, issues it raises.
Patrick Robinson used several consultants both in the U.K. and in the United States Navy during the two years it took to prepare—and I do know that every one was acutely aware of the enormity of the subject and the consequent dangers under which the U.S. Navy operates.
The author has turned this “worst-case” scenario into a pageturning thriller. He has not, however, strayed from the grim reality of terrorism on the grandest scale: the vulnerability of the modern military commander to the sly and cunning knifeman.
What happens in Nimitz Class could happen in the real world, with momentous consequences for us all. The U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy are all too aware of the threat. But even now, certain politicians on both sides of the Atlantic seem perfectly prepared to cut defense budgets regardless of stern warnings from the military.
I should perhaps remind them all that when countries such as Great Britain and the United States lower their guard in any way whatsoever, they end up paying for it, in blood, sorrow, and tears.
Margaret Thatcher, out of office now, but frequently still in our minds, remains a far-seeing politician of an entirely different class. In her historic lecture at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, on March 9, 1996, she told her American audience:
The Soviet collapse has also aggravated the single most awesome threat of modern times: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These weapons—and the ability to develop and deliver them—are today acquired by middle-income countries with modest populations, such as Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Syria…acquired sometimes from other powers like China and North Korea, but most ominously from former Soviet arsenals.
She reminded her audience that by the end of the decade we could see twenty countries with ballistic missiles. Nine with nuclear weapons. Ten with biological weapons. Thirty with chemical weapons.
“On present trends,” she said, “a direct threat to American shores is likely to mature early in the next century.
“Add weapons of mass destruction to rogue states,” said Margaret Thatcher, “and you have a highly toxic compound.”
She pointed out that many such states are led by “megalomaniacs and strongmen of proven inhumanity, or by weak, unstable or illegitimate governments.” She added that the potential capabilities at the command of these unpredictable figures, “may be even more destructive than the Soviet threat to the West in the 1960s.”
Patrick Robinson’s book vividly illustrates precisely what the lady means. And in its pages it also raises the question of how, in a turbulent and dangerous world, we make our resolution plain, without excessive cost in both materiel and, more particularly, people.
Nimitz Class will, I hope, bring home to an even broader public the extreme pressures under which the Armed Services continue to operate. In particular I would suggest that serving Naval officers read it, perhaps especially Navy cadets, who may have ambitions to join the Submarine Services on either side of the Atlantic.