Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

496 Pages·2000·4.02 MB·English

by  Sherry Sontag

OUTSTANDING ACCLAIM FOR
BLIND MAN’S BLUFF

“Packed with real life adventures that Tom Clancy could only have guessed
at. . . . More than a collection of sea stories. It reveals how submarine operations
during the cold war had a profound impact on strategic decisions made in the
Kremlin and Washington. . . . With Naval agents on their heels . . . Sherry
Sontag and Christopher Drew have made a successful end run around stacks of
secrecy oaths and the locked lips of the Silent Service to make public some of
the most astounding military operations of the cold war. . . . Lock the doors and
draw the shades, because this book is a well written, highly readable account of
man and machine working together to do the impossible for the highest of
stakes.”
—Washington Monthly

“Vividly told, impressively documented, and persuasively argued.”
— New York Times

“The veterans of the ‘Silent Service’ are silent no more.”
— John Lehman, former secretary of the Navy,
— Wall Street Journal

“The book is filled with specifics . . . but thankfully not presented in the dry
techno-speak of many military histories . This one is very human and easy to
read.”
—Washington Post
“A tale that has the Navy refusing to comment and retired submariners rejoicing
that their story is finally being told. . . . Espionage missions described in this
book are among the most sensitive and secret intelligence operations of the cold
war. Most have never been described in detail, if at all, and the Navy to this day
refuses to acknowledge them publicly.”
—Associated Press

“Gripping.”
—Publishers Weekly

“It’s almost impossible to make up stuff this good.”
— John Weisman, author of the Rogue Warrior® Series

“Excellent history . . . that reads like a Tom Clancy novel.”
—Booklist

“Hard-core investigative reporting at its crispest. . . . The stories are exciting, the
personalities border on the eccentric, and the constant turf battles among various
U.S. government agencies in those often top-secret submarine activities make for
intriguing reading.”
—Library Journal

“Exciting.”
—Denver Post

“Strong stuff! . . . Highly recommended. . . . A compelling testimony to the
courage and ingenuity of the submariners and the intelligence wizards and
operators who made use of this weapon during the cold war and up to this day.”
— Roy Jonkers, AFIO Executive Director,
Weekly Intelligence Notes

“As exciting as early Tom Clancy novels . . . engrossing. . . . Highly
recommended for everyone with an interest in submarines or intelligence.”
—Sea Power

“An immensely readable look at some of the blackest secrets of the cold war, as
U.S. and Soviet subs engage in subterfuge as intriguing as a thriller novel.”
—Providence Journal-Bulletin

“Impressive . . . the authors managed to capture the flavor of submarine life, the
innovation and ingenuity of men who have to fix complex equipment when there
is no supply line, the command structure that seems casual to an outsider but
which works better in an undersea environment than the more rigid
arrangements on surface or shore commands.”
—New London Day (CT)

“The most comprehensive look at the work of these intrepid sailors . . . A
celebration of their ingenuity and valor.”
—Baltimore Sun

“The authors write of top-secret operations to tap underwater Soviet cables,
recover a live H-bomb mistakenly lost on the ocean floor, and steal a Russian
sub. Better yet, all of it is true—and revealed on these pages for the first time.”
—Investor’s Business Daily

Table Of Contents
Prologue
A Deadly Beginning
Whiskey A-Go-Go
Turn to the Deep
Velvet Fist
Death of a Submarine
“The Ballad of Whitey Mack”
“Here She Comes . . .”
“Oshkosh b’Gosh”
The $500 Million Sand Castle
Triumph and Crisis
The Crown Jewels
Trust but Verify
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Epilogue
Afterword
Appendix A: Submarine Collisions
Appendix B: From the Soviet Side
Appendix C: Submarine Awards
Notes
Photographic Credits
Acknowledgments
Index
Copyright
About Public Affairs
To the men who lived these tales,
and especially to those who shared them with us.
“After all, submarining has always
been a game of blind man’s bluff.”
A top submarine admiral
And every man on board knew,
When the going got rough,
In this game of “Blind Man’s Bluff,”
Somehow he’d pull her through.
Lyrics from “The Ballad of Whitey Mack,”
an ode to a submarine captain by
Tommy Cox, submariner and spook