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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Silent War, October 5, 2001
Just finished John Craven's book, "The Silent War". As a newly retired 24 year Submarine Veteran, I'm just as excited as the next guy when confronted with anything that speaks to submarining. Plus I knew who Craven was, knew what he'd meant to the Navy and knew he was current, so it was with great anticipation that I picked up his book. It was interesting enough, but still in the end I felt a little unfulfilled. My submarine career pretty much encompasses the second half and end of The Cold War, and I guess I expected to see a little more of me and my comrades in Craven's work which is subtitled, "The Cold War Battle Beneath The Sea", accompanied by a dashing photo of a 688 class nuclear submarine on it's dustcover. Craven writes in great, sometimes scientific detail, about the various Navy and marine programs and investigations he was involved in. But there is not a lot discussion of actual operational submarining, in contrast to Sherry Sontag's and Christopher Drew's "Blind Man's Bluff", and this may be where the reader gets mislead. There may be security reasons, or maybe operational submarine discussion of the period isn't interesting to anybody but us submariners who were there, but a reader looking for that will be disappointed. But there IS room for "Blind Man's Bluff" and "The Silent War" in your submarine library. While Sontag and Drew have taken a lot of flack for their book, it IS much more a story of the submarines, the crews, and the missions than anything else current. Craven writes from a much more "above it all" perspective and his topics and discussions deal more with their strategic impact on submarining, than with the actual submarining itself. The one REAL negative of Craven's work is his propensity for tooting his own horn and patting himself on the back.
It starts at the very beginning and continues unabated throughout the book. The personality and demeanor that we see of him in all the television pieces on submarines, shines through on every page of the book. He did make an invaluable contribution to submarines, the Navy, and our nation, but he's gotta give us a break. Maybe if he'd titled his book, "My Story", with a portrait of himself wearing a tiny little set of civilian dolphins, we would have been better prepared for what we were getting into. Gene Brockington, San Diego, California
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44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insight into the personalities of the players, April 14, 2001
Two books on submarine operations during the Cold War are on the market. The earlier, Blind Man's Bluff, has a copyright date of 1998, while the more recent, The Silent War, has a copyright date of 2001. The authors of Blind Man's Bluff refer several times to John Craven, auther of The Silent War, while Craven refers to Blind Man's Bluff in several places, sometimes to question its analysis. The Silent War was written by one of the principles in submarine circles during the Cold War, John Craven. As such, he is in the paradoxical position of knowing more of the details than the authors of Blind Man's Bluff, while being bound by security regulations to say less. As a result, his book presents an interesting picture of the personalities involved, and an occasional interesting technical tidbit [two examples: big waves can be created on demand by driving a large ship at high speed - and turning it abruptly at the last second; materials have a critical temperature, below which they become brittle, rather than flexible.] - but less operational detail. The book is written in the first person and with a sense of excitement that one would expect from an author having lived through the experiences personally. Despite stumbling over an occasional cliché or misspelled word, the writing is competent to very good. Which to read? If you want to know what happened, I'd go for Blind Man's Bluff. Its content overcomes the better writing and sense of presence of The Silent Sea. If you want to know something about the people that made it happen, I'd go with The Silent War.
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Companion to "Bluff," Is this the Murky Truth?, August 13, 2001
Few people knew of John Pina Craven before the publication of "Blind Man's Bluff" in 1998, shedding light upon the life and work of the man who has left a mark nearly equal of Hyman G. Rickover's upon the silent service. "Bluff" wasn't perfect, however, relying upon partially declassified documents and (sometime anonymous) personal accounts of submarine espionage operations during the Cold War. Now, Craven has written his own account of his service with the U.S. Navy. Though he avoids discussing some of the accounts found within "Bluff," due to classification concerns, he does provide a number of details previously unpublished, as well as his unique insight into Cold War submarine operations. Some of his accounts are somewhat questionable, given contradictions with previously published accounts, which again, brings up his concerns over revealing sensitive information. The only thing lacking from the book is illustrations or pictures of any kind, which seems odd given the wealth of published images on the subject. Furthermore, a peek into Craven's personal photo collection would be fascinating. Overall, a highly-recommended book for those interested in submarine and Cold War history.
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