2010 book about the successful 1974 effort to secretly raise portions of a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. Nuclear missiles and lots of secret technology may have been recovered (it's never been revealed). Howard Hughes provided the cover with his ship Glomar Explorer, which was ostensibly a deep-sea mining ship.
It was actually a purpose-built recovery mission.
Interesting to read about the disagreements inside Nixon's White House and intelligence community as to whether the mission could or should be undertaken. Pretty much everybody was against it.
The recovery happened "the first week of August, 1974." Nixon gave his famous "I am not a crook" resignation speech on August 6, 1974.
Nixon, Jesse Helms, Henry Kissinger, and the NSA were gung-ho to spend taxpayer dollars on this, just as the Vietnam war was falling apart -- despite opposition from almost everybody and what would surely have been universal public outrage if the plan ever got out.
Your "public servants" at work.