Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson cancelled USS United States five days after the ceremony marking the laying of her keel. A pause to review the carrier's mission would have preserved options after construction had begun. His case for cancellation treated the Air Force's long-range nuclear bombers as a reason to regard much of the Navy and Army as unnecessary. Korea exposed the limits of that assumption: conventional fighting still had to be fought, and usable airfields were not necessarily within reach. The dispute concerned access to mobile combat power as well as control of the nuclear deterrent.
Chapter · 2:46-5:31
CVA-58's cancellation and the Korean War
The USS United States was cancelled five days after her keel was laid, just before the Korean War exposed the limits of relying on distant land airfields.