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

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine EspionageAuthors: Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 341 reviews
Sales Rank: 16917

Media: Paperback
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 1

ISBN: 006097771X
Dewey Decimal Number: 359.984
EAN: 9780060977719
ASIN: 006097771X

Publication Date: October 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Little is known--and less has been published--about American submarine espionage during the Cold War. These submerged sentinels silently monitored the Soviet Union's harbors, shadowed its subs, watched its missile tests, eavesdropped on its conversations, and even retrieved top-secret debris from the bottom of the sea. In an engaging mix of first-rate journalism and historical narrative, Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew describe what went on.

"Most of the stories in Blind Man's Bluff have never been told publicly," they write, "and none have ever been told in this level of detail." Among their revelations is the most complete accounting to date of the 1968 disappearance of the U.S.S. Scorpion; the story of how the Navy located a live hydrogen bomb lost by the Air Force; and a plot by the CIA and Howard Hughes to steal a Soviet sub. The most interesting chapter reveals how an American sub secretly tapped Soviet communications cables beneath the waves. Blind Man's Bluff is a compelling book about the courage, ingenuity, and patriotism of America's underwater spies. --John J. Miller

Product Description

For decades American submarines have roamed the depths in a dangerous battle for information and advantage in missions known only to a select few. Now, after six years of research, those missions are told in Blind Man's Bluff, a magnificent achievement in investigative reporting. It reads like a spy thriller -- except everything in it is true. This is an epic of adventure, ingenuity, courage, and disaster beneath the sea, a story filled with unforgettable characters who engineered daring missions to tap the enemy's underwater communications cables and to shadow Soviet submarines. It is a story of heroes and spies, of bravery and tragedy.




Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 341
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4 out of 5 stars Excellent book   May 23, 2010
SubmarineVet
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

As a former submariner and navy diver, I found this book reasonably accurate and very informational. There are always those who find fault and focus on a minor mistakes, and there were a few, but what's important is that this book, and a more recent one titled Red November, finally tell the story about what us submariners, divers and operatives did during the Cold War to protect their freedom of speech.


2 out of 5 stars Is This Fact or Fiction   May 7, 2010
J. K. Mercer (Shrewsbury, MA USA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful

After reading a few pages I went looking for the bibliography to validate some of the information, there was none. No references, no footnotes. How is a reader to know if the book is based on fact rather than fiction. Where any of the crewmen on these subs interviewed? The way the book reads it was like the author was standing on the con as the events played out. How was the information gathered? The Navy had and always will be very secretive about what went on below the surface. If anyone knows of a more factual book about the cable tapping please let me know. What these crews did, given the state of the technology back then is beyond comprehension. My hat is tipped to all who have served and who are now serving under the deep blue ocean. Just my humble opinion.


4 out of 5 stars IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK...   March 1, 2010
W. Craig Reed (San Jose, CA)
As a former submariner, navy diver and recon photographer, I enjoyed this book and found it to be fairly factual. However, the authors weren't able to get most submariners, deep sea "saturation" divers and espionage "spooks" to open up, and so there are few firsthand stories told by those individuals. If you liked this book, you'll love RED NOVEMBER: Inside the Secret U.S. - Soviet Submarine War, which goes much deeper through personal accounts told by operatives and reveals details about the most dangerous, daring and decorated missions of the Cold War.


5 out of 5 stars Probably an unsolvable mystery - What does the crowd think?   February 22, 2010
Golden Lion (North Ogden, Ut United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

1. An explosion was recorded at Oscar point and 91 seconds later an implosion was heard. The point at Oscar Point was two miles deep. The Scorpion would have stop imploding at 7,000 ft before hitting bottom. The submarine could have been anywhere within a 20 mile circle.
2. Captain John Craven discovered that the Scorpion was traveling East back toward the Mediterranean. On theory was a submarines turns 180 degrees when a torpedo activates while it is still on board, an event called a hot run. The boat turns that triggers fail-safe devices on the torpedo to shutdown.
3. Captain John Craven, asked a group of submarine and salvage expert to bet on the probability of each of the different scenarios explaining the loss of the scorpion. Prediction 1: The Scorpion could glide to the bottom at speeds of 30-40 knots. 2. The Scorpion could have glided to the bottom at 40-45 knots. 3. The hot running torpedo could have destroyed the munitions room. 4. The Scorpion could have been moving forward 7 feet for every one foot of descent. The group favored 3-4 feet for every one foot of descent meaning the ship could have traveled 6 to 8 miles. Craven applied Bayes search algorithm to the different probabilities and made a prediction.
4. Mizar found Scorpion with 220 yards of where Craven and his group of experts said she would be, under 11,000 feet of water.
5. The forward part of the engine room had imploded.
6. The propeller and propeller shaft were separated from the hull and the submarine sail.
7. The Navy ruled out a torpedo disaster
8. A new theory emerges that a live torpedo was released and it sought the Scorpion as a target. However, there was no evidence of an external torpedo hit. The explosion was believed to happen inside.
9. At Keyport lab, the MK-46 battery had exploded in flames during a vibration test because a tiny silver foil diaphragm had failed. The Mk-46 powered the Mark 37 torpedo and each warhead had 330 pounds of HBX explosive. If the silver foil is broke than the battery invertly starts and the 180 degree turn around is required to shut down the torpedo motor.
10. However, 1967, the Scorpion had be subject to corkscrew shaking and the batteries did not activate then. The vibrations in 1967 far exceed the specifications for battery safety.
11. The Ships batteries were largely destroyed.
12. The hull of the torpedo room looked largely intact
13. The escape trunk access, the escape trunk hatch, and torpedo loading hatch were all dislodged. A low order denotation for burning warheads could have caused the hatches to blow open.

Surprise Conclusions:
1. Russia is not in a position for a naval first strike attempt
2. The arms race bankrupted Russia Military spending efforts
3. SDI was the best deterent against nuclear holocaust because of its inclusive nature to defend.



5 out of 5 stars Hit all the right cords   January 30, 2010
B. Lescarbeau (Philadelphia, PA USA)
I have now picked up a few books on the subject after reading this book. most are decent or if i dare say good, but this book is great. in my eyes, it correctly portrayed the atmosphere of the era along with the attitudes from the lowest to highest members involved. It described the many perils, risks, mishaps, emotions, and triumphs of being a submariner during a turbulent time. What i most liked; buried within a very macro version of some of the accounts, the book never strays too far from the emotions that are involved inside a submarine and out. Sadly, i cannot list myself as having been directly involved as many who have commented on this book have. i can say that this book was very informative, thorough, clear, and just. Most of all, the book reminds us of the sailor's individual and self-sacrificial integrity. my hearts go out to those that put their life on the line (today and in days past).

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