The Rickover Corpus: A digital archive of Admiral Rickover's speeches and memos
11 comments
·August 2, 2025Animats
emmelaich
Yes, it mentions the energy crisis so dates it to late 70s at least. Also President Reagan, so after 1981. Probably well after.
uncletaco
The Nixon memo is dated for 1980 from after Nixon was president.
thomassmith65
Unless the one person truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, then no one has been really responsible
stmw
It is always interesting how such principles are much older than our current examples!
acidburnNSA
Truly amazing resource. Thanks to the folks funding this, and doing the scans.
andrewl
I've read a few articles about him, but I never heard him speak. I just pulled this up, and I find it fascinating:
kreelman
Ah, the "Kindly Old Gentleman"...
Though a very difficult man to get on with... He did champion the correct building of the first nuclear subs.
CamperBob2
Yep, a complex, flawed character.
Unquestionably the right person for that particular job, though. He was Mr. "Failure is Not an Option" years before Gene Kranz.
"Some thoughts on the presidency" [1]
(The site's index dates this to 1952, but it mentions "the events of 1974.")
[1] https://rickover-corpus.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Some+Thou...