The Glomar Revelation: Project AZORIAN and the Submarine That Never Surfaced

In 1974, the CIA used a billionaire’s ship to secretly raise a sunken Soviet submarine from the bottom of the Pacific. At least part of it.

This episode of Unsettled: The Hidden Record dives into Project AZORIAN, one of the most audacious covert operations of the Cold War. Using the specially built Hughes Glomar Explorer, the CIA attempted to recover a sunken K-129 submarine to obtain Soviet nuclear codes, cryptographic equipment, and intelligence on missile systems.

The mission’s cover was so elaborate, it gave birth to a now-famous phrase: “We can neither confirm nor deny…” And while the public story was controlled, leaks and declassified files revealed just how far the U.S. would go to retrieve secrets from the deep.

What did they find? What did they hide? And what’s still sitting on the ocean floor?