Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage Paperback – Illustrated, April 5, 2016

What a fantastic research job by the authors! This history grabs you and never lets go! I didn’t expect such a factual story to continue to grab and hold my interest. This has to be one of the most interesting and factual Submarine/Naval/Political History stories ever. I taught Anti Submarine warfare to P5M crews at FATUPAC from 1955 thru 1958,

Because the information in the book came mostly from numerous extensive interviews with former members of the U.S. Navy's submarine espionage service, the reader might expect the book to be full of unabashed praise for said service. On the contrary, the book is quite objective: it reveals both the good side and dark side of the service; the major successes in intelligence gathering and the clever and daring methods by which it was gathered, as well as the carelessness and neglect that resulted in the loss of SSN Scorpion, and the hubris and bad judgement that led to the construction of the Glomar Explorer. It also includes an appendix giving some details of the disasters Soviet submariners endured, such as the reactor accident on one submarine which would have killed everyone on board if 8 crew members had not volunteered to go into the reactor compartment to jury-rig a coolant pump. All 8 died a week later of severe radiation exposure.All in all a very worthwhile read.

This was a very entertaining book. It was a true high seas adventure story. This is the information that you never hear about in history class but it happened. I have read several other books on Submarines the latest book on Rickover the Struggle for Excellence, and the Craven book the Silent War. Each told basically about the same time in history from different view points. I have to say I enjoyed the Rickover book more but this one was more of a page turner.The book is chronological in order and tells the story of submarines and their clandestine operations. It gives you a feeling of what life was like aboard a submarine during the cold war and what they were trying to do.It starts out with the first uses of the snorkel and some of the tragedies that they had at sea to emphasis how dangerous it was. Then it goes into a ship that was chased by the Soviets.The middle of the book is mostly tails about attack subs and some of their secret missions and what they did mostly which was trailing Soviet subs.The book tells what Craven thought was the cause of the Scorpion disaster and how he figures it out. Then it tells about the special uses of some of the submarines and their fish and the bat cave. You'll have to read to see what I mean.The latter part of the book is about the cable tapping operations and what we found out.Over all it is a very enjoyable read. People who will like this book are people who like adventure stories, stories about submarines and history buffs who want to know what really went on during the cold war.

As the American Eagle and the Russian Bear were noisily and publicly confronting each other's ideology on the surface of the earth, a silent and very dangerous game was being played beneath the waves. This cat and mouse game was more like the blind mice, tapping their way through the ocean depths with the white canes of sonar. Collisions were bound to happen.For this reviewer raised on torpedo launching war movies like "Run Silent/Run Deep" and the German "Das Boot", it required a bit of mental gear-shifting to understand that the major use of the subs was for spying and intelligence gathering. A U-2 spy plane shot out of the skies over Russia made for world headlines. A secret sinking of a secret spy sub in the silent depths usually remained known only to God, and personnel sworn to secrecy. How many were lost, where, and how? Even today, many a surviving family member, both American and Russian, peer over trackless oceans and a sea of classified files and are unable to plumb those depths for answers.This book in rather engagingly written, reading more like a spy novel than a factual document. The suspense, the terror, the triumphs and tragedies, remind one of the great sacrifices made for national defense. Much is owed these men who go down to the sea, go down under the sea, that we above may breath more freely.Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)

This is one of the most Well balanced, Articulate , and brilliantly researchedbooks I have ever had the honor to read.

Reading what went on during and after the cold war was enlightening and scary. Had no idea how much risk was at stake as our navy sought to learn the scope of Russia's nuclear missile capability. How do the sub mariners keep their wits when they are constantly at risk of sudden death if things go wrong? They are certainly heroes living in a tube underwater for weeks and months. Great history and recommend reading to better understand the risks of a nuclear war and taking steps to prevent it.