Bardeen
April 23 marks the seventy-third anniversary of the founding of the People's Navy.
Once upon a time, there was a widespread rumor in society that when Rickover, the "father of American nuclear submarines," visited China's nuclear submarines in the 1980s, he made a comment on how to evaluate them.
On this occasion, this article is published in a special issue to correct the audio-visual.
March 19, 2012, was a Monday, and it was also a day when Beijing was immersed in spring rain. According to the agreement, our "Military Industry Memory/Underwater Long March" film team went to the China Ship Research Institute in the afternoon to interview The Elder You Ziping.
Mr. You Ziping is a senior ship expert, as early as the 1950s, he was a member of the overall design team of China's nuclear submarines in the "top secret project", and participated in the activities of the delegation led by Su Zhenhua, political commissar of the Navy. In the 1960s, he served as the deputy chief engineer of the Naval X Research Institute, and can be said to be one of the first technical experts involved in the development of China's nuclear submarines.
In the interview, Mr. You Ziping told us passionately about the whole process of China's nuclear submarine development that he experienced. At the end of the interview, the last question I asked him was whether Admiral Rickover, the "father of American nuclear submarines," had visited a Chinese-built nuclear submarine when he visited China in 1982. Listening to You Ziping's story of his being ordered to receive Admiral Rickover, the "father of American nuclear submarines", as a Chinese technical expert, he also clarified the ironic rumors in society.
The following excerpts from that year's "Interview Notes" are for the benefit of readers.
You Ziping said: In December 1982, Admiral Heyman George Rickover, the "father of american nuclear submarines," was invited to visit China after retiring from service. At that time, the organization considered that I had participated in and presided over the technical background of independent development of naval ships and submarines, and decided to let me participate in the reception and escort of Rickover on the submarine tour. I happily accepted the task. From the very beginning, this matter has caused a lot of misunderstanding. The story inside also listened to me slowly.
Once the sea was shipwrecked as water. In December 1982, Admiral Heyman George Rickover, known as the "father of the U.S. nuclear navy," who was hailed as the "father of the U.S. nuclear navy," retired from the U.S. Navy at the age of 82 after more than 60 years of service.
After retirement, he had a strong desire to visit China and visit China's nuclear submarines. Because he was surprised and suspicious that Chinese was able to build his own nuclear submarine on such a weak industrial foundation, in such a short period of time, and completely relying on his own strength.
At that time, when China and the United States had only been establishing diplomatic relations for a few years, after Admiral Rickover directly submitted a request for a visit to the Chinese Embassy in the United States, according to the circumstances at that time, the Mainland Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries invited General Rickover and his secretary Li Jinna to visit China. They arrived in Beijing on the evening of December 16, 1982.
After arriving in Beijing, as a technical expert, I first witnessed a big misunderstanding between the two sides when communicating the "visit itinerary".
It turned out that when Mr. Rickover sent a letter to the relevant Chinese authorities proposing to visit the "Submarine" in China, a "submarine" built by China, he made an obvious "mistake" in his application for a letter to visit China, that is, he did not state or emphasize in the letter that he wanted to visit China's "Nuclear Submarine", that is, the "Submarine" powered by atomic nuclear power.
At the time, Mr. Old ignored the problem that "the United States is different from any other country in the world," namely that only all the "Submarines" in the United States in the world — submarines have all been "Nuclear-powered" — nuclear powered. In addition, four other countries equipped with nuclear submarines (Soviet, British, French, and Chinese) have maintained the reality that diesel-electric submarines coexist with nuclear-powered submarines (in addition to AIP submarines).
Therefore, he ignored the "should" in the letter of visit to China that it was a visit to "Nuclear Submarine". Instead, in the habit of Americans, it is written in general terms to visit "Submarine". After receiving Rickover's signature application to visit China, the Chinese side naturally believes that since Rickover wants to visit the "Submarine" (submarine) built by China, it is of course also very welcome. If we want to say "misunderstanding", the root cause may come from here.
With the approval of senior leaders, Rickover came to Beijing with great enthusiasm with an invitation. When the Chinese side told him that the itinerary was to arrange to visit "Submarine" in W, he thought to himself: "Why should I go to W?" Aren't your nuclear submarines obviously built on F?? Especially when he knew that he was going to visit a Conventional Chinese-powered submarine, he was extremely dissatisfied with this, and even angry, without hiding his unruly feelings; at first he shouted for secretary Li Jinna to book a return ticket to return to the United States immediately, and constantly questioned the "integrity" of the Chinese side.
In the face of this embarrassment, the relevant leaders hope that You Ziping, as a technical expert, is also a Chinese counterpart who builds submarines, and also make some explanations. "Old Man Rickover is stubborn and stubborn, and it is difficult to convince him"; however, after the Chinese side finally presented the original letter he asked to visit the "Submarine" built in China, he suddenly realized that he not only expressed great regret to his master about what he wanted to see but did not see; he also had to express his acceptance of the Chinese arrangement. He visited our Nuclear Energy Research Institute, submarine factory and submarine, and visited Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Three Gorges and other scenic spots.
The mainland gave the "father of the U.S. nuclear Navy" Rickover a high courtesy, and after 20 days of his visit, he returned to the United States with the friendship of Chinese people.
Photograph of nuclear submarines launched in American newspapers in the 1950s
You Ziping said: When I accompanied him on a tour of the submarine being built in our country, Rickover did not have the shelf of the "father of the US nuclear navy" at all, and he did not avoid the dirty environment of the scene (at that time, our level of enterprise management was still relatively poor), personally drilled into the cabin from the small entrance and exit, crawled around and visited one cabin after another, while asking me some technical or technical disposal problems, while still writing in the small book in his hand, that serious spirit was really admirable.
During his twenty-day visit to the mainland, he was full of interest in our mountains and rivers, human customs and folk customs, and expressed his friendly friendship with the Chinese people.
Rickover recalls coming to China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and seeing Chinese people suffering terribly. This time he saw beautiful cities, ancient cultures, friendly people, he said that he would come back to China in ten years, and believed that he would see a strong country. Rickover said that before he came, he had seen some history books introducing the Chinese revolution and thought that the Long March of the Red Army was very remarkable, and that the victory of the revolution was the result of the people comparing the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. He said that in ancient and modern China and abroad, any corrupt government cannot get the support of the people and is doomed to failure.
While seeing that the lives of the Chinese people have indeed improved, he believes that the population must be controlled and coercive measures must be adopted; he believes that if a large and poor country like China wants to do a good job, it must concentrate its power and not disperse it. Engage in construction, don't do everything yourself, other people have something to take and use. In this way, the province invests, saves effort, and develops rapidly, and Japan is taking such a road.
He said, don't listen to those "instigators" and spend a lot of money to do what people already have, and don't think that the opinions of our American scientists are all correct. "Our American scientists have many, many whimsical ideas, and they always want us engineers to come up with their whimsy. As for whether it can be made, is there any use in making it? How much it costs to make it, they don't care at all. That's why I call them American-style scientists. Notice that it's an 'American scientist'. ”
He suggested that China should follow Japan's example and attach great importance to education, intellectual development is very important for construction, and he appreciated Confucius's educational philosophy. He said that to be a leader is to make all the subordinate work tense, to assign others to do the work that suits their abilities separately, so that he can free up time and energy to study some major decisions; Rickover even believes that the work tension can make the spirit focused, which is also a way of health, he claims: he is focused on work except for walking 4 miles a day. In introducing the process of creating and developing nuclear power, Rickover talked about the beginning in order to explore the small and light reactor type suitable for submarines, and once carried out research on four thermogens, light water, heavy water, gas, and organic matter, and several thousand people participated in this research activity, and several laboratories went hand in hand. At that time, there was a lot of controversy over the selection of the type.
He once again ridiculed some scientists in the United States, saying that if they did what they thought and did not deal with the problem without an engineering vision, I am afraid that a nuclear-powered submarine would not be able to be built in a hundred years.
In the conversation, Rickover's polite words and compliments in our reception work, as well as superficial articles when introducing the situation of the unit, often directly interrupted others, thinking that this was too unreal, a waste of time, and frivolous and vulgar. He said he refused almost all banquets in the country, but attended them a few times.
He not only expressed regret for his master for what he wanted to see but did not see (Chinese nuclear submarines), but even became angry and did not hide his feelings. From these remarks and action fragments, it can be inferred that when he was the person in charge of nuclear power engineering, he showed a stubborn personality, straightforward feelings, unique insights, and decisive actions, and at the same time was full of humor, humanity and a strong sense of professionalism. Even in the twilight of the hero's twilight years, he is still "the old man is full of strength" and his heart is strong. Regarding my participation in receiving Rickover on a visit to a domestically produced conventional submarine, I once wrote a short article published in Modern Ships Magazine, No. 5 , 1992 ( No. 53 in total ).
In 1985, the research and design of China's nuclear submarines won the Special Prize of national scientific and technological progress. "People's Pictorial" and "People's Liberation Army Daily" published "The Majesty of China's Nuclear Submarines" filmed by Mou Jianwei
After listening to You Ziping's story, I was still a little confused.
So, he asked him again: "Could it be that he visited the nuclear submarine when he visited China again?" Otherwise, why is there media hype about how Rickover praises reports of Chinese nuclear submarines! ”
You Ziping said: "You asked me if he (Rickover) would visit China again, and I couldn't answer. But what I do know is that he died of illness less than two years after he returned to China. It's been almost twenty years since this happened, and I can tell you today that our nuclear submarine was undergoing intermediate repairs in the dock. If it were not for the Middle Repair, Rickover had made this request again during his meeting with Hu Yaobang and Liu Huaqing, hoping that we would be able to fulfill this wish of his, and the trip might have been completed. It is said that later, Comrade Liu Huaqing asked the relevant departments to give him (Rickover) a special briefing on the construction of some nuclear submarines, including the selection of nuclear reactors, the submarine-to-surface missile test was carried out on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, and other similar details. He was an expert, and only after listening to it did he nod his head, thinking that the Chinese engineer was too wise! ”
Perhaps to completely dispel Rickover's "suspicions" (it is said that after his return to China, he revealed that "China's nuclear submarine technology may not have passed or may not have passed the customs or even at all"), on August 20, 1984, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Lehmann and his party visited Chinese nuclear submarines on Xiaoping Island in Dalian.
The level of military transparency is so high that even the U.S. Secretary of the Navy did not expect it.
From the interview with You Ziping, the author knows that history needs to be cherished and respected, the former is cherished, perhaps confident and self-respecting, self-love components are more; the latter respect contains reverence for history.
Interviewing Youlao and communicating with him, especially his open-minded attitude of not counting his reputation and Lilu, I personally feel that I have gained a lot, at least to understand the ins and outs of the 09 project and the little-known "unheard" stories of those who have silently dedicated themselves to the 09 project.
The picture shows Liu Huaqing inspecting China's first Kilo-class conventional submarine unit.