'A portrait of the miltary-industrial complex in action. The author takes us behind closed doors to reveal the day-today deal making, corner cutting.' (Bob Woodward
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Tyler, a Washington Post reporter, has written a stunning account of the motivations, strategies and tactics in a multibillion-dollar defense procurement that ran aground. Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear navy, David Lewis, chairman of General Dynamics, and P. Takis Veliotis, general manager of the Electric Boat Division, were at the center of the industrial effort to catch up with Soviet advances in submarine deployment. Following a series of escalating crises, all three fell humiliatingly from graceRickover and Lewis forced into retirement and Veliotis into exile to escape criminal prosecution. The narrative revolves around tape-recordings Veliotis made of his phone conversations with Rickover and Lewis, conversations that began with tentative thrusts and parries and led to the open attacks and counterattacks that brought all three down. The book is an impressive journalistic achievement and a powerful indictment of the defense procurement system. 50,000 first printing; 60,000 ad/promo; author tour. (October 29
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Patrick Tyler was born in 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri, but grew up in Texas where he attended Ross Sterling High School in Baytown, and attended the University of Texas at Austin for one year (in Physics) before moving to South Carolina, where he graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1974 with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism. He edited two weekly newspapers in rural South Carolina (1974), before spending a year at The Charlotte (N.C.) News. In 1976, he joined The St. Petersburg Times. In 1978-79, he produced and hosted a PBS Network series, Congressional Outlook, and the next year joined The Washington Post, where he worked for 12 years covering defense, intelligence and national policy issues. From 1986-89 he was Middle East Bureau Chief for The Post. He resigned in 1990 to join The New York Times in Washington as military analyst, then resumed his career as a foreign correspondent based first in Beijing, then Moscow, Baghdad and London, from where he resigned in 2004. His books include a history of the nuclear attack submarine program under Admiral Hyman G. Rickover ("Running Critical," Harper & Row, 1986), a history of American relations with China ("A Great Wall," PublicAffairs, 1999) and a history of American presidents and the Middle East ("A World of Trouble," Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009). He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Linda, an author and teacher. His home page is: www.patricktyler.org
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Required reading: Poli-Sci/Military history students and/or,
By A Customer
This review is from: Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics (Hardcover)
Author P. Tyler is very fair to all parties concerned. Excellent historical content, and thoroughness of research is evident in context. Historical accuracy is also excellent (I checked). Should be required reading for Political Science students and/or Military History buffs. This is one of the handfull of books that I've immediatly re-read after I finished it just to make sure I interpretted everything correctly. Content is very educational about mid to late US "cold war" policies. 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Example of the Militart Industrial Complex,
By A Customer
This review is from: Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics (Hardcover)
Excellent narrative illustrating the complex nature of the Cold War era military industrial complex. Fascinating struggle between two strong leaders: Adm Hyman Rickover and Takis Veliotis of General Dynamics. Watch the action and the gamesmanship with billions of dollars at stake and watch how each combatant exposes the others weaknesses and see how the interests of the US people get lost in the battle.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Only three-stars because story ends too quickly,
This review is from: Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics (Paperback)
This is a comprehensive account of the contentious genesis of the Los Angeles Class attack sub, a warship normally described as one of the most advanced in the world, but under suspicion here. Though this story will most likely appeal to those familiar with the terminology and technology of military submarines, it also has much to offer for those studying the military acquisitions process.The Los Angeles class attack sub was borne of attempts to combat two implacable enemies - the Soviet Navy and America's own Hyman Rickover, the so-called father of the nuclear navy. Facing the combined soviet threats of submarine launched anti-ship missiles (previous Russian subs could only fire their missiles only after an elaborate process while on the surface where they were visible and vulnerable) and faster submarines equipped with more powerful reactors, American planners now find themselves desperate to reclaim an edge on speed. (Though setting the benchmark with the Skipjack class, progressive gains in the size and weight of latter subs using the same powerplant eroded this advantage). The switch to a newer reactor (actually one redesigned after use on the USS Long Beach, one of the world's first nuclear-powered surface ships) wasn't enough, and submarine vets had no choice but to make compromises, like reducing hull thickness and conseuqently reducing maximum safe operating depth. Conflict with the headstrong Admiral Rickover occurs when the winning design for the new sub is chosen by a firm other than General Dynamics, the established industry leader. Also complicating things is Takis Veliotis, a wily genius who is the only man who can stand up to greedy corporate reps eager to cut any corner and Rickover himself. Veliotis, unfortunately, has some of his own secrets to hide, resulting in his flight to Greece to avoid charges stemming from millions of dollars in kickbacks. What nearly dooms the program are the extensive compromises made to the construction schedules - resulting in ships being launched half-finished only to be quietly returned to the factory for completion. Millions of dollars in overruns are quietly overlooked, with the hope that a government bailout will convert these losses into profits. When that prospect begins to look unlikely, the corporate heads of GD begin turning on each other, while unskilled and unreliable labor, low morale and impossible construction schedules mix to spell the likely doom of the US submarine force. This book tackled an unlikely subject - the LA Class is the backbone of America's submarine navy, not something you've heard described as essentially "Unsafe at any depth". However, the book is marred for two reasons - the author spends much more time concentrating on each specific transaction or exchange between characters (like Veliotis and either the head of GD or Rickover) without connecting these exchanges into a cohesive picture of a collapsing defense program. A more glaring flaw is the book being incomplete. "When it was over, there were just the submarines" but the submarines managed to operate at much higher safety standards than the Russian boats they confronted - the author never connecting these boats to the seeming time-bombs produced by GD. What had happened? Who can take credit for the success of the LA Class - or is even that perceived success an illusion? Even the supreme irony of speedy submarines is never addressed adequately, though the information was probably unavailable. Though developments in sub-launched missiles and their submarines themselves did substantiate the need for faster US subs, the threat of high-speed Russian subs was a cold war mirage. The Russians never gave much production priority to their high-powered reactors. Those installed in experimental versions of the November and Papa classes, and regularly in the Alfa class proved more trouble prone than realized. Though more compact than comparable western designs, these reactors were at least as loud, and, using molten metal as a coolant, had to be operated around the clock, even while in port, lest the coolant be allowed to "freeze" into solid metal and ruin the piping. Either of these two ommissions (the post-construction history of the LA class and the real threat posed by the Russians) is fatal to the subject. Nevertheless, I found it important reading. I'm hoping the author will revisit the subject again using the information he had no access to at first.
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