"Azorian," the code name for a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer. The 1968 sinking of K-129 occurred approximately 1,560 nautical miles (2,890 km) northwest of Hawaii. Project Azorian was one of the most complex, expensive, and secretive intelligence operations of the Cold War at a cost of about $800 million ($3.9 billion in 2017 dollars). Now, for the first time in print, is the official CIA history of the event. This document, secured by FOIA and heavily redacted but provides a detailed history from the CIA, of Howard Hughes daring plan to recover the sunken K-129.