USS Nitze

Commissioned in 2005, the Nitze honors Paul H. Nitze, who served as Secretary of the Navy under President Johnson and spent five decades as one of the most influential strategic thinkers in American national security—co-authoring NSC-68, the foundational document of Cold War containment policy, and helping to negotiate arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. Nitze understood that credible force was the prerequisite for credible diplomacy. The Nitze is that force.