Book Description
Praise for Silent Steel
"The magnitude of the tragedy of the USS Scorpion is matched only by the depth of the mystery surrounding her loss. Stephen Johnson has done a remarkable job of shining new light on this dark moment in U.S. submarine history."
—Sherry Sontag, coauthor of Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
"What happened to the USS Scorpion? The question has vexed submariners for almost four decades. Now, with meticulous research and incredible attention to detail, Stephen Johnson examines and dissects one of the most tragic and mysterious submarine accidents in U.S. Navy history."
—Douglas Waller, author of Big Red: Inside the Secret World of a Trident Nuclear Submarine
"Stephen Johnson has crafted a forensic masterpiece that leads the reader back through time to unravel the gnawing enigma of the tragic 1968 loss of the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion. Sifting through a maze of conflicting theories, he meticulously lays out a tale of undersea detectives searching for conclusive evidence to one of the most baffling mysteries of the cruel sea."
—Rear Admiral Thomas Evans, author, analyst specializing in submarine history and operations, and former officer on the Scorpion
"The manuscript arrived with yesterday's afternoon mail. I finished reading it by nightfall. It's that good! Thoroughly researched, impeccably documented, with an appealing and literate style, Silent Steel should become essential reading for submarine enthusiasts and for anyone else who enjoys an engaging and informative yarn."
—A. J. Hill, author of Under Pressure: The Final Voyage of Submarine S-Five
Customer Reviews:
Good read.......2007-10-17
Things you didn't know, and the processes that happened before the disaster to make it a disaster
Poorly-written journalism, definitely not naval science.......2007-08-05
This book contains 241 pages of disconnected, repetitive prose, of which about 100, at best, are informative and useful in understanding the loss of Scorpion. Are there no editors at publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc.?
Requiem at 12,000 Feet.......2007-07-23
Nearly four decades after the tragic and mysterious loss of the nuclear fast-attack Scorpion, it seems her 99-man crew is finally getting its due. At the time of the Scorpion's disappearance, the story was lost in the tumultuous 1968, with the assassinations of both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and a media entranced with a rising Viet Nam body count, the Scorpion quickly fell from the front page. Of the two recent books illuminating the events, much from previously classified Navy documents, one, "Scorpion Down", by Ed Offley, chooses to sensationalize Scorpion in Cold War intrigue and Pentagon conspiracy. "Silent Steel", by Stephen Johnson, is the other, and for my money, the better. Rather than trying to grab headlines of his own, Johnson's documentary paints an accurate and surprisingly lively portrait not only of what is know about the last days of the Scorpion, but also of life aboard a US Navy nuke during the Cold War.
Painstakingly researched but told in the vernacular, Johnson steps through the various theories of the Scorpion's demise: was it the accidental detonation of one of its own torpedoes, failure of a weld in the pressure hull, an explosion in the main battery compartment, or the highly unlikely attack by a hostile Soviet sub? Johnson is at all time is respectful of the sacrifices of the submarine service, and, in treatment reminiscent of Robert Kurson's "Shadow Divers", places the dignity and sanctity of the crew's eternal resting place above all else. While recounting the evidence as cited in a string of official investigations, Johnson also weaves in a strong and poignant dose of personal interest, bringing to life the officers and crew so long forgotten by so many. Ultimately, while the author offers no final solutions, he does the US Navy a great favor by shedding light on the clandestine operations of "the silent service". In short, a quick, intelligent, and educational read that is long overdue. Highly recommended.
The Benchmark on the Subject.......2007-06-30
With "Silent Steel", Stephen Johnson has written the most well-researched and comprehensive book on the Scorpion disaster to date. His exceptional human insight and unwavering devotion to the facts set this book apart from similar books on the subject. There is no smoking gun in this book; no government conspiracy, and no UFOs. Instead there is a comprehensive report on the brave men who took Scorpion on her final dive.
Sadly, other new books on the Scorpion disaster have glamorized the conspiracy theory, using this incident to sell books. When reading Stephen Johnson's book, you may find yourself thinking "Okay, come on, you've obviously done a ton of research on this...let's hear your theory about the Soviet Echo-II that sank the Scorpion". Fortunately, he doesn't go there. I think that's because he's done the research and knows better.
I just retired from the US Navy after 23 years. Half of that time was spent in the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, tracking submarines around the world, and the other half was spent as a Submarine Sonar Technician, on submarines around the world. There is no conspiracy.
Stephen Johnson did justice to USS Scorpion and the families of the crew. He didn't follow hare-brained theories or threads of circumstance; he merely reported what happened in a riveting book. This is a book for anyone...average citizens, military historians, or scientists. Read this book before or after you read any of the other current books on USS Scorpion; this will set you straight.
Brett Beedles
Engrossing, well-written.......2007-05-02
Stephen Johnson's "Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion" is a highly detailed account of the last months of the US Navy nuclear submarine, lost in the Atlantic off the Azores on May 22, 1968, and of the various official investigations aimed at uncovering the reasons for that loss. Johnson follows the official chronology established by the Navy (in contrast to Ed Offley in "Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon, The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion") but reaches a different conclusion as to the underlying cause of the disaster (the Navy inquiries in general favored a torpedo accident of some kind, but Johnson believes some other equipment failure - perhaps a battery explosion or maybe merely a trash disposal unit that failed to seal properly - that led to an uncontrolled descent to a depth where the great pressure crushed the hull). The evidence for and against each proposed cause is examined in detail. All in all, an engrossing and well-written book.
Download Description
"One of the great secrets of the Cold War, hidden for decades, is revealed at last. Early in 1968 a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine sank in the waters off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Compelling evidence, assembled here for the first time, strongly suggests that the sub, K-129, sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile, most likely at the naval base at Pearl Harbor. We now know that the Soviets had lost track of the sub; it had become a rogue. While the Soviets searched in vain for the boat, U.S. intelligence was able to pinpoint the site of the disaster. The new Nixon administration launched a clandestine, half-billion-dollar project to recover the sunken K-129. Contrary to years of deliberately misleading reports, the recovery operation was a great success. With the recovery of the sub, it became clear that the rogue was attempting to mimic a Chinese submarine, almost certainly with the intention of provoking a war between the U.S. and China. This was a carefully planned operation that, had it succeeded, would have had devastating consequences. During the successful recovery effort, the U.S. forged new relationships with the USSR and China. Could the information gleaned from the sunken sub have been a decisive factor shaping the new policies of détente between the Americans and the Soviets, and opening China to the West? And who in the USSR could have planned such a bold and potentially catastrophic operation? Red Star Rogue reads like something straight out of a Tom Clancy novel, but it is all true. Today our greatest fear is that terrorists may someday acquire a nuclear weapon and use it against us. In fact, they have already tried. "
Customer Reviews:
Red Star Rogue.......2007-10-01
This book accurately relates parts of history that have remained a mystery for years. There is some speculation, however, the author is very convincing and has done his homework. I throughly enjoyed reading this book.
Red Star Rogue Belongs on the Bad Fiction Shelf.......2007-09-08
As another reviewer, William F. Twist, states, authors Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond claimed the acoustic signatures of the Soviet diesel submarine, K-129, recorded by a PERMIT Class submarine in 1968 were processed by land-based Cray supercomputers when the first such computer was not completed until 1976,
In 1968, the year K-129 sank, and for several years thereafter, any recordings of Soviet submarines made by US submarines would have been sent to the Naval Scientific and Techincal Intelligence Center (NAVSTIC) in Building 52 on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. Then, as now, such detection events were analyzed by Intelligence Research Specialists with near photographic memories. Computers were not then, nor are they now, used to evaluate such data. (This may come as a shock to those who believe computers are capable of solving almost all complex analytical problems.) As head of the Branch within NAVSTIC responsible for the analysis of all such data, I can state categorically that no K-129 acoustic signature information was received from any US submarine in 1968.
This, and other egregious errors documented by Twist, indicate Sewell and Richmond engaged in the complete fabrication of events to support their conspiracy theory and sell the book.
Sadly, this has become common practice by those who must be called "hack journalists." The motive: sell books to the technically uniformed and conspiracy gullible public. A more recent example is Ed Offley's book, SCORPION DOWN, which propounds unfounded conspiracy theories and ignores the pressure-collapsed condition of the wreckage on the bottom and the complete absence of any damage consistent with a torpedo attack.
SCORPION was lost because of an onboard problem the crew could not overcome before the submarine sank to collapse depth. The Soviets were miles away minding their own business. Sewell's next book, "All HANDS DOWN: The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS SCORPION," due out 15 April 2008, will doubtless follow the same conspiracy story line although we can expect a few new fabrications to convince the buying public that Sewell's book is "better" than Offley's. We can also expect other hack journalists to provide back-of-the-dust-jacket reviews praising Sewell's effort as "a daring expose that reveals what the US Navy has for decades kept hidden" or some such drivel. This is a neat - but not very nice - reciprocal (quid pro quo) arrangement among such journalists: "You endorse my book and I'll endorse yours." This leaves the prospective buyer without an objective assessment of such books until they are critically reviewed - and their technical weaknesses exposed - in limited distribution publications such as NAVY TIMES or the US NAVAL INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS.
Astonishing.......2007-06-15
Although much of the data was not declassified until recently, one can certainly see where authors such as Tom Clancy have found their inspiration. This is a riveting true story. Regardless of your opinions of the author's conclusions, the facts and details are endlessly fascinating. To know the story of Red Star Rogue is to understand better the dynamics of the Cold War.
Good, but I'm not quite buying it.......2007-06-11
There have been a lot of quibbles about details in the various reviews, most of them are missing the fundamental point: If it wasn't an attempted rogue launch, what was it?
On the other hand, I don't buy the notion that the missile was destroyed by a fail-safe. There's one problem with that notion: Why was somebody outside at launch? I can't imagine that that would be survivable. I think it's much more likely something went wrong preparing to launch.
Addressing various gripes:
I don't think disagreements about exactly where it sunk matter because the CIA has an incentive to hide it's true location.
As for the guy who said there would be nothing to salvage if the nuke went off--it's only the high explosive that seems to have gone off. If you simply fire one of the detonators the warhead will be blown to bits but will *NOT* produce a nuclear yield. All the detonators must be fired at *EXACTLY* the right instant for it to make a mushroom cloud.
As for China not having such missiles--they did. The Gulf I the Russians sold them. They didn't have h-bombs to put on them but we had no conclusive evidence they didn't have them, either.
Pass the Nuts please!.......2007-05-22
I claim to know almost nothing about subs, being an old grunt myself. But I have read Cotten Collier's "A Matter of Risk" which covered the Project Jennifer and was written in the 1980's by a member of the Project Staff.
His claims jive with Craven's as to the status of the sub on the ocean floor (broken in two), the parts recovered and the fact the recovered section of boat broke in two while being lifed off the floor and the Conning Tower was lost. One missile also fell out of its tube to the floor.
Also at least one torpedo with a atomic warhead was recovered. As Collier's Brother was part of the crew that took the sub apart screw by screw, I'd take his version over.
I'd say that the "story" would make much more sense if he included Space Aliens, Di-Lithium Crystals, and a few cute kittens for the "human intrest" value.
I sincely hope the writers go back on their Meds before they write another book.
If you want a book thats more believable, buy "The Book of the Subgenius" here. I'd beleive in J.R. "Bob" Dobbs before I'd believe these guys!
Book Description
March 7, 1968: Several hundred miles northwest of Hawaii, the nuclear-armed K-129 surfaces and then sinks; all of its crewmen and officers perish at sea. Who was commanding the rogue Russian sub? What was its target? How did it infiltrate American waters undetected? Navy veteran Kenneth Sewell, drawing from newly declassified documents and extensive confidential interviews, exposes the stunning truth behind an operation calculated to provoke war between the U.S. and China -- a nightmare scenario averted by only seconds. In full, authoritative detail, Red Star Rogue illuminates this history-shaping event -- and rings with chilling relevance in light of today's terrorist threat.
Customer Reviews:
Red Star Rogue Belongs on the Bad Fiction Shelf.......2007-09-07
As another reviewer, William F. Twist, states, authors Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond claimed the acoustic signatures of the Soviet diesel submarine, K-129, recorded by a PERMIT Class submarine in 1968 were processed by land-based Cray supercomputers when the first such computer was not completed until 1976,
In 1968, the year K-129 sank, and for several years thereafter, any recordings of Soviet submarines made by US submarines would have been sent to the Naval Scientific and Techincal Intelligence Center (NAVSTIC) in Building 52 on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. Then, as now, such detection events were analyzed by Intelligence Research Specialists with near photographic memories. Computers were not then, nor are they now, used to evaluate such data. (This may come as a shock to those who believe computers are capable of solving almost all complex analytical problems.) As head of the Branch within NAVSTIC responsible for the analysis of all such data, I can state categorically that no K-129 acoustic signature information was received from any US submarine in 1968.
This, and other egregious errors documented by Twist, indicate Sewell and Richmond engaged in the complete fabrication of events to support their conspiracy theory and sell the book.
Sadly, this has become common practice by those who must be called "hack journalists." The motive: sell books to the technically uniformed and conspiracy gullible public. A more recent example is Ed Offley's book, SCORPION DOWN, which propounds unfounded conspiracy theories and ignores the pressure-collapsed condition of the wreckage on the bottom and the complete absence of any damage consistent with a torpedo attack.
SCORPION was lost because of an onboard problem the crew could not overcome before the submarine sank to collapse depth. The Soviets were miles away minding their own business. Sewell's next book, "All HANDS DOWN: The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS SCORPION," due out 15 April 2008, will doubtless follow the same conspiracy story line although we can expect a few new fabrications to convince the buying public that Sewell's book is "better" than Offley's. We can also expect other hack journalists to provide back-of-the-dust-jacket reviews praising Sewell's effort as "a daring expose that reveals what the US Navy has for decades kept hidden" or some such drivel. This is a neat - but not very nice - reciprocal (quid pro quo) arrangement among such journalists: "You endorse my book and I'll endorse yours." This leaves the prospective buyer without an objective assessment of such books until they are critically reviewed - and their technical weaknesses exposed - in limited distribution publications such as NAVY TIMES or the US NAVAL INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS.
interesting but hardly believable.......2007-05-20
Many reviews have already summarized the theme of this book, so I will
not repeat. I think the story is interesting, but there are just too many
things in this book which is suspicious that one can hardly believe it.
One point I would like to put forward is the following: the author claim
that the missile launch and sunk of the boat took place at an exact
integer longitude and latitude. He said that this is to trick
the US to believe it is from a Chinese sub, which could only launch missiles from such exact positions. This hardly believable. There is not
anything special about exact longitude or latitude. Missile launch can
easily be made from any longitude and latitude, it requires no more complicated math than a simple interpolation table, and is much simpler than navigating the submarine itself.
Interesting Story But Long on Speculation.......2007-05-06
RED STAR ROGUE is an interesting account about a supposed rogue Soviet submarine that allegedly attempted a nuclear strike against Honolulu in 1968. The authors, lacking specific, corroborating information, engage in a considerable amount of speculation. Moreover, they cannot make a point or present a fact without repeating it at least once--usually within a couple of pages--causing this reader to lose patience. Remove the speculation and the repetition and you would have more of a pamphlet than a book. Nonethless, this book, despite its sensationalist tone, appears to be the most well researched account of this incident publicly available.
Interesting . . . but is it true?.......2007-04-18
I have a hard time making up my mind on this one...
Either RSR is a bunch of paranoid nonsense or its one of the most facinating episodes from the Cold War. I really don't have the expertise to know whether the authors claims are accurate or not; the "facts" are connected with a lot of assumptions and conjecture; still, the story does seem to have a ring of truth to it.
Did a rogue Soviet submarine attempt to nuke Pearl Harbor and frame China? It seems possible but I suppose we'll never really know. Even so, the mere possibility that it could be true makes RSR a compelling read.
Factually challenged, to say the least........2007-02-12
First, I want to say that I really, really wanted to like this book. I really did. But there were so many factual problems with it, that I can't take it seriously.
First and foremost, the author mentions on several pages that the explosion aboard K-129 was monitored by a US early warning satellite. The problem with this is that according to "Guardians, Strategic Reconnaissance Satellites" by Curtis Peebles (Presidio Press, 1987. ISBN 0-89141-284-0), a comprehensive work on intelligence satellites from the beginning until 1985, there were no early warning satellites in operation in March 1968, when K-129 went down. The low orbit MIDAS follow-up program was cancelled in 1966 (due to problems with coverage and false alarms), and Project 949, its geosynchronous replacement, wasn't launched until August of 1968. So, it couldn't have been been monitored, because we didn't have the capability at the time K-129 sank.
Also, Sewell claims that the sailing was timed to prevent it from being detected by photoreconaissance satellites, but again we run into an issue: At the time, *ALL* US photorecon satellites were 'film return' types. In other words, they imaged what they saw directly on to film, and when they were done they returned that film back to Earth to be developed and interpreted. After they ejected the film, they were essentially useless. Referring back to "Guardians" again, we find that the Russians didn't have to try very hard to evade them: Launch 1968-5 was on January 18th, and had a lifetime of 17 days. That put the return back on February 5th. K-129 sailed on February 24th. The next US launch wasn't until March 13th, almost a week after K-129 sank.
Also, the author claims that K-129 was followed by a Permit class submarine, and that this sub recorded the acoustical signature for later processing on land-based Cray supercomputers. Remember, this is 1968. Seymour Cray didn't found Cray Research until 1972, and the first Cray-1 wasn't completed until 1976. Now, I have no doubt that the boat could have been followed, and its signature recorded for processing back on land, but if the author makes a mistake like this (and the aforementioned ones), how can you trust the other claims?
There are other problems as well.
I find it completely plausible that we wanted to raise the boat for examination of the missiles, especially the warheads, and to get the code materials. Now, it is true that the code machine and settings would have been old. Those not familiar with the story of how the British broke the German naval Enigma back in WWII would wonder how 5 year old code materials could be of help in breaking new codes. First, because K-129 was a strategic nuclear asset, it is likely that it had the best code machine the Russians could produce. That means that likely it was still in use at the time of the attempt to raise it. Even if it was not, it would allow us to decode the material from the time of the sinking (provided the codebooks containing the settings for the machine had been preserved - a pretty likely scenario). That would give us insight into the communications of the Soviet Navy with its ballistic missile submarines. Because military messages tend to be pretty strictly formatted, and those formats don't change greatly over the years, that would give those in the NSA working on the then current Soviet codes probable texts to use as 'cribs' to help them decode Soviet naval communications.
This book reminds me of a book I read a long time ago about the Face on Mars. All speculation, and very little actual factual information. I was sorely disappointed, because I was hoping that over the years new light would have been shed on the sinking and subsequent recovery of at least part of the K-129. Unfortunately, this book ain't it. Instead of shining a light, this book obscures the actual incident in supposition, speculation, and outright misrepresentations of the facts.
Book Description
The Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 was the pride of the Soviet Navy, but on July 4, 1961, during its maiden voyage to the North Atlantic for war games, it suddenly and unexpectedly developed a serious leak in one of the reactors. In a race against time, the officers and crew worked desperately and brilliantly, under intense exposure to radiation, to improvise a coolant system, averting a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster. The toll for their efforts was certain and devastating: Eight men died painful deaths from acute radiation poisoning within days of the accident, and the surviving crew returned home to await their unknowable fate.
Featuring a complete history of the actual events, with passages from the submarine captain's memoir, and rarely published historic images, K-19 places readers at the apex of the Cold War's brinkmanship between the USSR and the United States. It is the companion book to the upcoming National Geographic feature film about this gripping tragedy, K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Including information on the making of the film, with production stills, and cutaway drawings of the submarine, this powerful volume combines authoritative history and the magic of moviemaking to give the reader the real backstory to K-19.
Customer Reviews:
Shallow exploration of Soviet submarines.......2007-04-06
I'd already seen the movie, but picked up this book figuring I'd get the true story behind the movie. Unfortunately, though the book does get the history behind the story, it's information value isn't that much more substantive than the feature film.
The True Story: K-19 was the Soviets' first SSBN - nuclear-powered, ballistic missile sub. Like their USN counterparts, Soviet SSBN's of K-19's "Hotel" class were really modified attack subs. (Unfortunately, the Russians were a generation behind in nuclear sub technology: American SSBN's were based on the Skipjack class, a second generation SSN, while Hotels were modified versions of the "November" class - the very first Soviet SSN.) Particulars aside, K-19 suffered a series of maladies endemic to the Soviets' military-industrial complex, not the least of which were design flaws in its nuclear powerplant. In the heady days of the early 1960's, the Soviets were forced to relax their standards in order to field any nuclear powered ships which were unreliable, unsafe and loud enough to allow easy detection by western ships. As a result, the history of Soviet nuclear subs is a catalog of nuclear accidents, shoddy design and maintenance, poor training and morale, and numerous radiation related injuries and deaths. The feature film "K-19" depicted a fictionalized version of K-19's maiden voyage in which the ship's reactor suffered a catastrophic coolant leak and nearly exploded. A breakdown of crew morale nearly led to a mutiny, but the ship eventually made port, was refitted, and returned to sea. Future patrols of K-19 were similarly marked by near catastrophe - including a fire that trapped some of the crew in one darkened compartment for over three weeks. Ironically, K-19 survived these maladies while other ships went to the bottom, taking many crewmen with them. Soviet authorities cover these accidents up (reports try to shift blame to the crews; injuries from radiation exposure are typically masked as stress-related).
But we knew all of that. Well, we didn't know many details, but the story of the soviet navy as one beset by incompetence, cover-ups and nuclear accidents is an old one, the grist of Tom Clancy novels of a distant era. This book, which includes the memoirs of Nikolai Zateyev, who commanded K-19 on its infamous 1961 patrol, adds little to the lore of the hidden Soviet naval history, and amounts to little more than a thick addendum to books like "Blind Man's Bluff". We get names of many in the Soviet hierarchy, and many anecdotes of Soviet engineering blunders, but again, these are old stories fleshed out with some names. Because its not clear how many of these episodes were witnessed by Zatayev, it's unclear just how useful his memoirs are as a firsthand record of systemic problems in the Soviet navy. At about 211 pages, including a digest of Russian naval accidents, "K-19" is no heavy read, and I finished it off in a little more than a day. (The digest is largely redundant - since the text of "K-19" already recounts many of these accidents; an afterword by "K-19" director Kathryn Bigelow, and an insert of pictures of both the real K-19 and from the feature film further plump up the book's weight.) Hunting the depths of this book gave me the sense that the author gave up trying to get the real story of K-19, and decided to make up for lost text by simply recounting many already documented incidents (like collisions between Russian subs and American ships like the USS Voge and the submarine USS Gato, as well as the loss of the subs Komsomolets, K-219 and K-129) brought again to public attention with the 1998 publication of "Blind Man's Bluff". In short, if you've read any histories of cold war submarines, Soviet or Western, this book will likely add little to your understanding.
Recommended.......2004-08-01
This book gives you the real story behind the dramatization presented in the motion picture: K-19: The Widowmaker. More than just a companion piece, the book provides passages from a diary maintained by the captain of K-19, extensive research materials on the incident itself as well as the Cold War Soviet Union conditions and motivations that contributed to the incident.
If that were not enough, a wealth of information is provided on other (known) incidents involving Soviet/Russian nuclear naval vessels/projects. Starting just after WWII and continuing up to the loss of the Kursk in Nov 2001, the bravery of the Russian sailors, the alarming loss of life and the environmental impact is well documented.
Too many pages.......2004-07-23
This book has 211 pages and some addendums that you can read or not depending on the mood you will be at the end of the book, so we will only count the 211 pages of the story.
The first 112 pages will tell you how to build a nuclear submarine and some tips on how to maneuver it. If you want to learn to do this it is fine to read it, but I think that if you only read this book to know how to build the nuclear sub you might find some trouble doing it.
The next 50 pages is the real story of what happened to the K-19 and it is interesting what was going on at the sub.
The last part of the book tells us why that happened to the sub and tells us that the Russians didn't learn anything about this accident and maybe they had the same failure at Chernovil.
So, if you read from page 112 and read about 70 pages you will get the story.
The hidden side of the Russian navy.......2004-03-31
Normally I don't like reading books that are then used in movies. If the movie follows the book too closely then what is the point of both reading the book and seeing the movie. This book however is quite different to the film. They compiment each other nicely.
It was fasinating to read of the problem encounted by the Russians in trying to match the US navy particularly once they went to nuclear power. Once they did so the dangers both to themselves and the enviroment went up dramatically.
What I did notice while reading the book is that you get a feel of how much there is to get it right on a submarine. It certainly was a tribute to the Western navy designers that most of these problems did not occur like these in their ships.
I was also very impressed with the bravery and skill of the soviet sailors and commanders that went out in ships that were sub standard and how well under pressure they did behave.
"These are good weapons we're building,comrades!".......2004-02-14
A great expose on the Soviet Navy.Although we all remember the Cold War and the phychological war between the USSR and the West,particularly the US.The massive buildups on both sides seemed to be without end.With the continual blustering of Russia,and continual expansion of communision we all wondered where it would all end.Little did we suspect that the powerful Soviet system would collapse from within with hardly a wimper.Many still don't understand how such a powerful system could fall apart so easily.Well,reading this book will show how the whole system was rotten to the core and totally inept in every aspect except brutality and deceit particularly towards their own people.It's amazing after all the slavery,sacrifice,brutality,forced labor camps,oppression and all the other evils carried out by the government, that so little was accomplished.
This book shows that while we feared these Soviet subs,the real threat was that they were so poorly designed,constructed,maintained and operated that the biggest threat was that they would have a malfunction and cause a major disaster.
To quote a little that sums up the Cold War from pg.210...
"The Cold War ,after all,was not just a military chess game,an effort to maintain the balance of nuclear power,with that wonderful concept Mutual Assured Destruction. It was also a war in a much more literal sense,a war of attrition.Our strategy in constantly upping the ante in the arms race was to push the entire Soviet system to the breaking point.And of course,that strategy succeeded.The Cold War is over,and we were the winners."
The book is well researched,well written and very informative.
Average customer rating:
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Nuclear Submarine Disasters (Great Disasters: Reforms and Ramifications)
Christopher Higgins
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
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Amazon.com
Spy Sub is the tale of a top-secret submarine named Halibut that lowered miles and miles of special cable along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in order to investigate a sunken Soviet sub. The mission was such a success that the Halibut itself received a Presidential medal in a secret ceremony. It's a true story, even the part about the sub getting a medal. Roger C. Dunham, a nuclear-reactor operator on board the Halibut during the mission, provides a firsthand account of an aspect of Cold War espionage that has only recently begun to surface. To this day, the Pentagon refuses to acknowledge such missions, in all likelihood because they are still going
Customer Reviews:
Exemplary style and substance.......2007-07-09
One should truly enjoy this book on many levels. The clear prose helps to place the reader inside the submarine environment, submerged in a world hundreds of feet below the sea in a "motionless sensation of losing contact with the world." There is a Hitchcock like feel to the interweaving saga of becoming a submariner, with drills, alarms, and other anomalies. Dunham also gives a good glimpse of the politics and spirit of the times. Moreover, it is also an account of one man's enlistment reaching into the entire morale of the crew. Some of the secrets are subtle. For instance it was the engine cushioning in-part that made the US subs superior. In Spy Sub, Dunham speaks of a "rubberized" engine room. What more does one need to say?
Keep it in context.......2007-01-22
Readers need to keep this book in context. This isn't a Hollywood movie script. This was a factual account of an individual's experience on a submarine on one of the most important missions of the Cold War. What the men on this sub did was extremely difficult and the reader does not fully appreciate the hardship the crew went through. The importance of this discovery was one of the pivotal points in the cold war, and significantly altered USA-Soviet and USA- China policies.
This book is the only book authorized and approved (and heavily edited) by Naval Intelligence on this subject, which is why many people have complained about the lack of details. The last chapter of the manuscript was completely removed by Naval Intelligence and never went to print. The author was well aware of what was happening, but he was not allowed to publish it because of the secrecy agreement he had signed with the Navy.
Red Star Rogue and Blind Man's Bluff, while written by submariners, are not first hand accounts of that happened, and the author's were not bound by the secrecy agreements. Red Star Rogue does give a much more detailed explaining of what happened, as that author apparently interviewed both Soviet and USA Naval Officers who were involved. That author never reveals his sources so the reader has no idea of how much of it is true, and how much is speculation. Spy Sub is more of the story of one submariners' experience and what happened on that critical mission. It is an accurate description of the life on a submarine.
While the author's attempt to tell the story of the mission, most of the interesting elements were removed. The only names what are real are the author's name and President Johnson. All other names including the name of the sub, were changed to satisfy Naval Intelligence editors. Perhaps someday this material will be declassified (as it should be) and they publish the original manuscript in it's entirety. In the mean time, understand you're reading a book about a story that the US Navy doesn't want told, written by submariner who took his secrecy oath seriously.
Iraq - another Vietnam.......2007-01-09
excellent Book to learn how U.S.'s Presidents' Policy caused which international Results. An important Piece of the Puzzle to understand why Vietnam was to happen, and Iraq to go the same.
A Lot Of Talk Little Meat.......2006-06-23
The Author Writes a lot but say's little about what the title of the book say's
Person think they will read about the K-129 Mission in 1968they will sadly mistaken the author very touches on the subject
He even does not give the name of the sub calling it Viperfish when others Call it by it's true name the Halibut.
This Author did not have the need to know about the mission but since he was on the sub and the K-129 is still in the news i will write a book about my time on the Halibut or sorry ViperFish and get persons to think i knew anoput the sub's mission to the wreck of the K-129.
If you want to read about the about the K-129 Mission read Project Jennifer / Red Star Rogue and Blind Man's Bluff for a better understanding of the mission.
If this was a movie, I'd have gotten my money back.......2006-06-08
The actual text of this book begins on page 13, but by page 21 I had lost interest. After having read the poor reviews here, I knew going in that the book may be a bit lacking, but what killed it for me was the author's description of having gone to the library to find out what a "viperfish" was, and then describing the creature. Since we all know by now that the boat was in fact the Halibut, this obvious, unneeded lie in a 'secret mission' story (one that is no longer as much so) is certain to make any reader question whether or not what he or she is reading is distorted, hidden fact, or outright fiction.
I would instead recommend a book such as Red Star Rogue. While that book itself is poorly edited, the story is fascinating.
Book Description
About 80 nuclear-powered submarines continuously patrol the North Atlantic Ocean--a vigilant contribution to the balance of the superpowers. But at what price is the balance maintained? The question is all the more important in the face of suggestions to reduce further or eliminate
land-based strategic missiles and rely even more on missiles ferried by nuclear-powered submarines. What is known about these seldom-seen guardians of the nuclear balance? What kind of accidents have they had? What kinds of accidents may yet occur? What happens if they release their troublesome
nuclear materials to the world's oceans? Sunken Nuclear Submarines asks and attempts to answer these and other important questions. Relying on the limited information made available by the superpowers, the author reviews information from some of the 200 known accidents involving nuclear submarines
and assesses the environmental consequences. The author concludes that only increased candor and openness on the part of the superpowers will permit a true understanding of the risks of using nuclear-powered submarines as a part of the strategic balance. This book will be of interest to
politicians, political journalists, environmentalists, and general readers.
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RUSSIA - Feb. 18 - Ustinov Rules Out Kursk's Collision With Another Vessel.(Brief Article): An article from: APS Diplomat Recorder
Manufacturer: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
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This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat Recorder, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on February 23, 2002. The length of the article is 314 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: RUSSIA - Feb. 18 - Ustinov Rules Out Kursk's Collision With Another Vessel.(Brief Article)
Publication:
APS Diplomat Recorder (Newsletter)
Date: February 23, 2002
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 56
Issue: 8
Page: NA
Article Type: Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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RUSSIA - May 14 - Kursk To Be Raised By Sept. 20.(Brief Article): An article from: APS Diplomat Recorder
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This digital document is an article from APS Diplomat Recorder, published by Pam Stein/Input Solutions on May 19, 2001. The length of the article is 349 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: RUSSIA - May 14 - Kursk To Be Raised By Sept. 20.(Brief Article)
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APS Diplomat Recorder (Newsletter)
Date: May 19, 2001
Publisher: Pam Stein/Input Solutions
Volume: 54
Issue: 20
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This digital document is an article from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 3259 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Russia's blue water blues.(nuclear Navy deteriorating)
Author: Cristina Chuen
Publication:
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
Volume: 57
Issue: 1
Page: 65
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