What submarines were in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War?

Answer 1

Though only Navy records will have a full listing, the National Archives is a good place to start. In general, only PACFLEET (Pacific Fleet) boats (out of the West Coast of the US and Pearl Harbor) would've been assigned to cover operations off the coast of Vietnam. Though such information is now declassified, the actual information isn't usually kept as a single record; it would take a researcher to view all submarine records for those boats for the period indicated, and even some boat records are still classified due to their particular missions. We do know that there were, indeed, fast attack submarines in the South China Sea during the Vietnam conflict. By reviewing the records of individual boats, it might be possible to guess that they were there, particularly if a tour has "western Pacific" as a description of the operating area. But we can make some guesses. Consider just the Skipjack-class boats. Skipjack, SSN-585, was an east coast submarine, and so was Scorpion, SSN-589, which is on eternal patrol (meaning she was lost). They were not there. The USS Shark, SSN-591 was also on the east coast, and it, too, was not there. One boat that was certainly there (in 1967 and again 1971) was the USS Scamp, SSN-588. The USS Sculpin, SSN-590, may have been there on its tour of the western Pacific in 1964. USS Snook, SSN-592 was probably there in 1965, and again in 1969, 1970-71, and also in 1972. If you wish to poke around on the web, you might find that some Thresher/Permit-class submarines were also there. (As the USS Thresher, SSN-593, was lost, this class of boat takes the name of the next remaining sister ship, the USS Permit, SSN-594.) These newer submarines began appearing in the late 1960's, and it is possible that some were in that theater of operation. The fleet ballistic submarines (boomers) stayed away; there was no need for them to be in that small pond. They remained on patrol in the Pacific where they were less likely to be detected yet well within range of tactical targets with their Polaris missiles. Oh, and don't limit your thinking on this one. The Russians has a number of boats in the South China Sea at different times during the conflict as well.

Answer 2

Subs are probably the only weapons not used, or used secretly during the Vietnam War. The USN utilized porpoises (living animals), frogmen (UDT-Under-Water-Demolition Men), SEALs, Battleships (one-USS New Jersey), nearly all of their aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and NASTY boats to deliver covert teams to North Vietnamese shores. The USN even had a new and separate navy, their Brown Water Navy (not seen since the US Civil War) which operated riverine boats (Swift Boats, Monitors, etc.). But subs? They primarily kept vigilance and played tag with Soviet subs patrolling the same water as they did; along with relaying any intercepted intelligence that they happened to acquire.