Hughes was part of a CIA plot to recover a sunken Soviet submarine.

Hughes was part of a CIA plot to recover a sunken Soviet submarine.
In March 1968, during the Cold War, a Soviet submarine carrying nuclear-armed ballistic missiles accidentally sank in the Pacific Ocean. The Soviets embarked on a two-month search for the sub but were unable to locate it; not long afterward, the U.S. found it some 1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii, 16,500 feet below the water’s surface. Believing the 1,750-ton sub was a source of important intelligence information, the CIA launched a complex covert operation, codenamed Project Azorian, to recover it. The U.S. commissioned the construction of a ship with the specialized capabilities needed to lift the sub from the ocean’s depths, and the CIA devised a cover story that the vessel, named the Hughes Glomar Explorer, was being built for Howard Hughes, who planned to use it for a new commercial venture: mining minerals from the ocean floor. The Glomar Explorer finally arrived at the wreckage site in the summer of 1974 but was unable to retrieve the whole sub because a portion broke off as it was being raised. A second recovery effort was planned; however, in the meantime there was a burglary at the Los Angeles headquarters of Hughes’ Summa Corporation, and among the stolen items was thought to be a secret document linking Howard Hughes to the CIA and the Glomar Explorer. The news media learned about the burglary and the story of the Glomar Explorer’s real purpose became public in 1975. As a result, the mission to recover the rest of the sub was scrapped.