page_title: USS United States (CVA-58)
section_title: Keel laying; cancellation
hierarchical_section_title: USS United States (CVA-58) / Keel laying; cancellation
caption_attribution_description: The keel plate of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) being laid in a construction dry dock at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company shipyard, Newport News, Virginia (USA), 18 April 1949. The carrier was cancelled a few days later, on 23 April.
context_page_description: USS United States (CVA-58) was to be the lead ship of a new design of aircraft carrier. On 29 July 1948, President Harry Truman approved construction of five "supercarriers", for which funds had been provided in the Naval Appropriations Act of 1949. The keel of the first of the five planned postwar carriers was laid down on 18 April 1949 at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. The program was canceled in 1949, United States was not completed, and the other four planned carriers were never built.
context_section_description: Looking to cut the military budget and accepting without question the Air Force argument on nuclear deterrence by means of large, long-range bombers, Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson announced the cancellation of construction of United States, on 23 April 1949, five days after the ship's keel was laid. Secretary of the Navy John Sullivan immediately resigned, and Congress held an inquiry into the manner and wisdom of Johnson's decision.  In the subsequent "Revolt of the Admirals" the Navy was unable to advance its case that large carriers would be essential to national defense. 
  Soon afterward, Johnson and Francis P. Matthews, the man he advanced to be the new Secretary of the Navy, set about punishing those officers that let their opposition be known. Navy Admiral Louis Denfeld was forced to resign as Chief of Naval Operations, and a number of other admirals and lesser ranks were punished. The invasion of South Korea six months later resulted in an immediate need for a strong naval presence, and Matthews' position as Secretary of the Navy and Johnson's position as Secretary of Defense crumbled, both ultimately resigning.
  The Navy soon found a means to carry nuclear weapons at sea, placed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1950. Thus the question of which service would have primary responsibility for strategic nuclear strikes was not answered with Johnson's cancellation of USS United States.
caption: Commencement of construction
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