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65 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read for anyone into submarines or espionage, May 1, 2000
Imagine if you will that you are onboard a US Navy submarine that has just snuck into Soviet territorial waters to spy on what the other side's navy is doing. From the sonar members of the crew can listen to the screw noise and learn turn counts that identify different Soviet Naval ships and submarines that are plying the seas around you. Your submarine-in this case the USS-Tautog (SSN-639) is here to gather intelligence on Soviet cruise missile submarines that could pose a threat to US carriers. Your captain, in this case Commander Buele G. Balderston drove his sub deeper into Petropavlovsk whereupon they collided with a Soviet Echo-II class attack boat. This was 1970, the half way point in the Cold War, one of three accidents that year, and all of them chronicled in Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew and Annette Lawrence-Drew's `Blind Man's Bluff-The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage'. While the title may sound like some cheesy hack banged the book out and filled it with questionable information, `Blind Man's Bluff' takes the moderate approach, the authors admitting that sometimes the information is sketchy at times, and speculate on what probably happened, corroborating information from those directly involved aids in fleshing out the true stories told within the book. It details the disastrous first attempt to spy on the Soviets in 1949 when disaster struck the ill-fated USS-Cochino when one of it's batteries exploded, leaving the submarine to flounder in sixteen foot swells before eventually sinking off the coast of Norway. It's crew was rescued by her sister ship, the USS-Tusk, but not before six crewmen were killed-drowned in the stormy seas. The book also talks at some length about Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the man who singlehandedly created a nuclear navy for the United States. It details Rickover as being a power hungry, arrogant and petty man who made or broke careers as he saw fit, and someone who demanded to know about any projects `his' boats were involved with. Evidence, whether it be technical or personal, is often presented in anecdotal form, often amusing and always enlightening. It praises the Navy as often as it chastises it and allows the reader to develop their own opinions on whether an action was right or wrong. However, with regards to the 1968 sinking of the USS-Scorpion, it attacks the establishment-the Navy and her departments for a cover-up that has gone on for thirty-two years. When the Scorpion went down, she was in such a sorry state of repair, that one crewmen had been removed over fears expressed in letters written to his superiors. However, it wasn't the fact that Scorpion seemed to be falling apart that caused her to sink, rather a defective torpedo battery leaking within a torpedo and cooked off the 350 lb HBX warhead contained within the weapon that caused her to go down. Memos written from the Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Center told of the defective batteries, but were ignored. At first the Navy announced she may have been sunk by the Soviets, then recounted that in order to deny the torpedo theory-stating steadfastly that there was no way a weapon could `cook off' while inside a submarine. As well the authors attack, and rightfully so, the CIA for their $500 million boondoggle of the American public for the Glomar Explorer fiasco-code named Project: Jennifer, the Glomar Explorer was the CIA's massive ship that was used to hoist an antiquated Soviet Golf-class diesel electric missile submarine out of sixteen-thousand feet of water 1,700 miles north-west of Hawaii. The submarine had sunk, probably due to the same problem that sank the Cochino-an exploding battery. Suffice it to say that Glomar Explorer utterly failed to raise the sub more than 3000 feet, at which point the grapples failed and the Golf fell almost a mile where it shattered to bits on the ocean floor. This didn't stop the CIA from trying again a year later in 1975, and succeeded in raising only 20% of the sub-minus the three nuclear missiles it carried, minus any code books and minus any usable technology. It was this singular event that led to the CIA being scrutinized and stripped of much of its vaunted power. From submarine delivered wire tapping pods being delivered into Soviet waters to listen in on undersea telephone cables to Snorkel Patty and her collection of hundreds of dolphin pins, `Blind Man's Bluff' delivers humor, excitement, and an easily readable glimpse into the shadowy and very often murky depths of Navy Intelligence, its operations and its people. The book is personable and detailed, fulfilling its criteria of being both informative and entertaining making it a fine addition to anyone's library who is interested in submarines, the US Navy or espionage in general.
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Action and Adventure are Real....Thrilling and Moving, January 14, 2000
This book is a series of long vignettes about submarine spying and operations during the Cold War. That these collections of stories are able to be told are a testament to the author's research and abilities to remove submariner's from their oaths of silence. The fact that they are writing about still classified events means Blind Man's Bluff lacks a central story line or continuous chronology. The authors could only relate those events that participants chose to disclose and describe. Thus, the book is very episodic as oppossed to being a neat history of the subject. That being said, the stories are fascinating and moving. Thank a submariner the next time you run into one. These men risked (and still risk) a cold and silent demise in pursuit of their missions -- missions that contributed greatly to ensuring that the Soviets would not be tempted to go nuclear during the cold war due to our constant ability to keep ahead of their technology, strategy and tactics and general war fighting ability. The stories are thrill rides of missions in Soviet waters, collissions between U.S. and Soviet subs, the loss of both Russian and American boats (with all hands), and close to shore cable tapping by our navy that is as breathtaking as anything Tom Clancy could dream up. The authors do sometimes go overboard in their "breathless" writing as some of the other viewers write, but I found this only a minor annoyance. The stories of the men and machines themselves are the focus and the authors write them well. (The only thing that nagged me through the book was the realization that so many of our naval personnel were willing to talk about events that they swore never to reveal. The authors do not spend much time on this issue. My hope is that the Navy has given the quiet ok to these veterans as a way of acknowledging their historic service. The alternative is that a large number of sworn men broke their commitment and may be making it more difficult for current submariners to perform their necessary missions.) This is fast paced, exciting and will stir your pride in our country's armed forces.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MOVE OVER TOM CLANCY, February 15, 2001
Confronted with fading memories, secrecy oaths, security clearances and old loyalties, the authors have done an outstanding job writing a fascinating account that rivals the best cold war fiction. This is a true story of American submarine espionage during the cold war and as the authors note "In silence and stealth, but most importantly in secrecy, attack subs carried out as many as two thousand spy missions as they kept track of Soviet submarines". In chronological order, the book covers US submarine surveillance during the cold war beginning with the loss of the diesel submarine USS Cochino and ends with the post cold war secrecy problems still facing the families of lost submarine sailors on both sides. Narratives are given for several incidents such as the submarine USS Gudgeon being caught in Soviet waters and forced to the surface by the Soviets. A most intriguing chapter covers the 1968 loss of the US nuclear submarine Scorpion as it returned from a mission to the Mediterranean Sea. Using acoustic data, a submarine simulator and advanced mathematics, it took nearly five months for scientists to locate the Scorpion. Although the evidence points to an on board torpedo explosion, to this day the cause of the sub's lost is still in dispute. Blind man's bluff involved tracking Soviet subs, surveillance of missile launches and communications monitoring. Soviet subs were trailed by US submarines to determine the submarine's characteristics, patrol areas plus Soviet Naval operational philosophy and tactics. The book contains a fascinating account of the USS Lapon tracking a Soviet missile sub for 47 days. However, tracking was dangerous. There were several underwater collisions, with the text describing the one where the USS Tautog collided with the Soviet submarine Black Lila. The book states "Tautog flipped on her right side, rolling nearly 30 degrees as she was forced backward and down. Men went grabbing for a handhold on rails and tables. Coffee mugs, pencils, rulers, charts and erasers went flying through the control room." While both submarines were heavily damaged, neither sub sank, although each submarine's commander thought the other had sunk. In a post cold war interview, the Black Lila's commander stated "I thought for a second, `I have sunk a brother submariner'....It was hard to have realized it." The book narrates the US attempt to raise a sunken Soviet submarine. After locating the sub, Naval Intelligence proposed to remove missiles and code materials using robots. The CIA disagreed, intervened, and took over. Ignoring international law, the CIA contracted with Howard Hughes to build a special ship to recover the entire submarine under the pretex of searching for manganese. The project failed with only a 38-foot piece recovered. The Naval Intelligence's approach was validated years later when Navy robots were successfully used to explore the Titanic. The book's high point is the narrative of wire taps on Soviet cables in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Soviet White Sea. Under great danger, taps were place on Soviet military cables by divers working outside a specially equipped surveillance submarine. At considerable risk, taps were periodically serviced to recover data tapes. Servicing a tap, the Seawolf once got mired for nearly two days on the bottom of the Okhotsk Sea. To avoid detection, the secret surveillance submarine Parche traveled 15,000 miles one way on a indirect route to place a tap on a White Sea cable and gain intelligence on Soviet Arctic operations. The Soviet's use of the Arctic ice was a critical strategic move and the authors note that "the Soviets shift to the Arctic was a brilliant move....where it would be hugely difficult for US forces to root out Soviet missile subs and destroy them." Throughout, the text describes the personalities involved discussing the differences arising between individuals, groups and agencies. The handling and briefing of the President, Congress and/or Congressional oversight committees is most interesting. A key player through much of the book is John Cavens of Naval Intelligence. Cavens and his scientists developed the techniques that successfully located the nuclear bomb dropped into the Mediterranean following an Air Force B-52 mid-air collision, located the sunken Soviet sub and pinpointed the location of the lost USS Scorpion. In summary, the text notes "While satellites replaced many of the spy planes and made intelligence-gathering safer....submarines continued to confront the Soviets directly" and concludes "There is no question that some skippers went too far in their quest for the big score. But then the Navy and the intelligence agencies weighed the gains against the possibility of a violent response, they relied on one simple fact: the Soviets were sending out their spies as well." The text ends stating that "Now, with the end of the cold war and a new phase in submarine espionage beginning, it's time to look back, time to assess what has so long been hidden." Whatever may be the readers views regarding the cold war, the book tells how so many US Navy submarine sailors when "in harms way" so that Americans could sleep safely at night. The book finishes with appendices and notes which alone are worth book's price. Appendix A describes nineteen confirmed or probable submarine collisions during the cold war while Appendix B gives the Soviet side of this story. Following the appendices, notes give the sources for each chapter. The principal player's remarks are often revealing. For example, Admiral Watkins, former Chief of Naval Operations, stated that he allowed the U.S.Naval Institute - a private, nonprofit organizations that works closely with the Navy - to publish Tom Clancy's novel The Hunt for Red October as part of the Navy's psychological warfare against the Soviets. Admiral Watkins said "about two-thirds of the technical information in Clancy's novel is on target and the rest is wrong, and that it typically overstates the US abilities...." The Admiral continues that the book "did us a service....The Soviets kind of believed it, and we won the battle...."
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