Statement by the President on the Entrance Into Sea Duty of the Polaris Submarine George Washington.
TODAY the Polaris submarine U.S.S. George Washington leaves the United States for the high seas. It will be the first of its kind to become operational and inaugurates a new technique of deterrence. Roving and hidden under the seas with 16 thermonuclear missiles apiece, the George Washington and her following sisterships possess a power and relative invulnerability which will make suicidal any attempt by an aggressor to attack the free world by surprise. The George Washington, the Patrick Henry, the Abraham Lincoln and other Polaris submarines will perform a service to world peace worthy of the great American names they bear.
Note: On November 1, following Prime Minister Macmillan's announcement that Great Britain had agreed to provide a base for U.S. nuclear submarines armed with Polaris missiles, the Press Secretary to the President issued a release concerning the arrangements made with Great Britain for support facilities for the submarines. The release stated that the President welcomed the arrangements as further evidence of United States-British cooperation for the mutual benefit of both countries and the NATO Alliance.
The President's statement of November 15 was released at Augusta, Ca.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President on the Entrance Into Sea Duty of the Polaris Submarine George Washington. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234599