When the Submarine Voyage ride opened at Disneyland in 1959—a $2.5 million attraction that was the result of a partnership among Disney, the U.S. Navy, and General Dynamics—it was said to be the largest fleet of “atomic” submarines in the world.
Just a few months later, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev arrived in the United States for an 11-day tour. He expressed a particular desire to see Disneyland, and it has been said that Walt Disney himself was excited to show off his newest feat to Khrushchev, but it never happened.
During the visit, Khrushchev was under strict security; the Cold War was intensifying, and his motorcade was met with hostility and protests at several stops. Government authorities cited safety concerns and denied the request, much to the dismay of the leader’s wife and daughters. Khrushchev too was bitter about the change of plans. He reportedly said, “Just now I was told that I could not go to Disneyland. I asked ‘Why not? What is it? Do you have rocket-launching pads there?’ I do not know. . . . For me, this situation is inconceivable.”
Walt was left disappointed, too. He had called in the highway patrol and the Anaheim Police Department for added security, but in the end, it was all for naught—although the international diplomacy kerfuffle made headlines, then comedy specials, and even eventually the official Disneyland press kit for several years afterward.
Parts of Disney’s newest attraction paralleled the 1958 North Pole expedition of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine. Disney’s “atomic” fleet took its inspiration from that success and were named the Nautilus (D 301), Seawolf (D 301), Skate (D 301), Skipjack (D 301), Triton (D 301), George Washington (D 301), Patrick Henry (D 301), and Ethan Allen (D 301).
“The atom is our future,” Walt Disney once said. He embraced the technology and its promise as only a visionary could. Originally, the “Tomorrowland” neighborhoods of his parks were intended to showcase futuristic technologies, including nuclear. When Disneyland’s Tiki Room opened in 1963, he used technology from Polaris, the first submarine-launched ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead, to program the animatronics. And when he visualized Disney World, he sought—and gained—the right from the state of Florida to build a nuclear reactor to power it.
