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

"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, Amazon.com

Reader Reviews:

Better than a techno-thriller (3/3 people found this helpful)

Well researched, a really good historical work and yet so readable it is better than most techno-thrillers. Even if you have little knowledge of, or interest in, submarines this book is a fascinating one. 'Blind Man's Bluff' opens the door on one of the few areas of the Cold War where contact between the superpowers (and the UK) was regular and sometimes physical (radar intrusion and reconnaisance flights being the other). 'The Hunt For Red October' is a great read but this book recounts operations just as incredible and dangerous, the difference being that here they actually happened. A great read.

Amazing (1/1 people found this helpful)

I do not read books, however after 9/11 i was stuck at New York JFK airport and bought this book. . I have never read and enjoyed a book so much!. To put it bluntly this is a brilliant book to read, i couldn;t put it down.

The story of the subs that helped us win the Cold War (3/3 people found this helpful)

It is hard to overstate the singularity and importance of this book. Blind Man's Bluff, as the subtitle says, truly is The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage. Before the research of writers Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (with Annette Lawrence Drew) culminated in the publishing of this book, the stories of hundreds of submariners, true heroes one and all, had been shrouded in the secrecy borne of the Cold War. Many men aged and died without ever telling their wives and children what they did during their tours of duty; many family members never knew exactly how and why their loved ones never came home; many survivors have only now learned, thanks to this book, the exact nature of the missions they took part in, having never been privy to that information during their service. According to the authors, many of these men and their families have thanked them in quite emotional terms for finally telling their stories. The submariners of the United States Navy helped win the Cold War, and they deserve the heroic recognition they dutifully earned in service to their country.

This book basically takes the reader through the secret history of submarine intelligence missions over the course of the Cold War years and beyond. Many of these tales prove once again that truth is oftentimes stranger than fiction. Triumph and tragedy abound. The book also serves as a primer of sorts for the history of the Cold War; the interplay between different American administrations, naval chiefs and admirals, larger-than-life sub captains, and brilliant civilian naval administrators immerses you in the full scope of military planning, action, reaction, and sometimes overreaction. The biggest mistakes that were made all seem to fall in the lap of admirals and high-ranking naval officers and administrators, and these mistakes put many lives in danger and caused a number of unnecessary deaths. The dangerous obstinacy of government bureaucracy is a problem we continue to deal with today.

Submarines fulfilled innumerable intelligence-gathering missions during the decades after World War II. Subs infiltrated Russian waters to glean data about Soviet hardware, missile technology, and military behavior patterns; they secretly tailed all manner of Soviet subs across the oceans in order to identify each type of craft by the slightest of sounds and to learn the practices and tendencies of Soviet sub commanders (helping to ensure that the Soviets would be hard pressed to ever launch a massive nuclear first- or second-strike via the sea); they searched for valuable military hardware (both American and Soviet) along the ocean floor; and they brought home some of the most critical intelligence findings imaginable.

Among the more remarkable stories detailed here are the Navy's successful attempts to locate a lost Soviet nuclear sub (which the CIA later attempted - embarrassingly unsuccessfully - to salvage from the bottom of the ocean), the mysterious loss of the US sub Scorpion (along with new information that would seem to finally explain the cause of the tragedy), and the collision of an American sub with one of its Soviet counterparts (just one of a surprising number of such collisions). Perhaps the most fascinating account to be found in Blind Man's Bluff is America's secret tapping of Soviet military cables underneath the sea off Okhotsk and in the Barents Strait. Submarines made a number of undetected trips to the discovered cables, hiding in relatively shallow waters literally just beneath the Soviet navy's very nose for days at a time, to collect and replace recorded tapes that gave Naval Intelligence an unprecedented look at Soviet plans and capabilities as well as crucial insight into the Soviet military psyche itself.

You will meet some incredible heroes and brilliant intellectuals in this book: men such as John Craven, Commander Whitey Mack, Admiral Bobby Inman, and Tommy Cox, a would-be country singer who immortalized the deeds of his fellow submariners (and memorialized those who didn't make it back home) in song. Then there are John A. Walker, Jr. and Ronald W. Pelton, two of the worst traitors in American history. Walker spent eighteen years building a spy ring that turned over an immense number of secrets to the Soviets for less than one million dollars, while Pelton informed the Soviets of the Okhotsk cable tap for a mere $35,000. These men put the lives of hundreds of brave submariners at risk, greatly compromising their nation's security in the process, and will stand forever among the most infamous of American traitors.

If you want to know what peril under the sea can really mean, read the amazing accounts chronicled in Blind Man's Bluff. America's submariners played a crucial role in our nation's defense for decades, but only now are their stories being told. It is a secret history more thrilling than that borne of the imaginations of the best military science fiction writers.

The stories I can't tell my children. (9/11 people found this helpful)

I'm ambivalent about this book. On one hand, it tells much about US submarine SpecOps at the height of the Cold War; on the other hand, it tells much about US submarine SpecOps at the height of the Cold War.

Confused? Don't be: My ego loves that the story of what we did, how difficult it was, and how well we did it, is being told, but on the other hand, secrets and long-held confidences granted to members of the submarine fleet by my country have been opened up to public scrutiny. I'm certain this book was read avidly in the fleet headquarters of the former Sov-block nations. Thus, my ambivalence.

Having been a member of SUBDEVGRU ONE, and crewman of the USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687), there is much in this book on which I cannot comment, and there lies the strength of this book: It tells stories that would never otherwise have seen the light of day, outside of the standard "Usta-Fish" brags quietly told between those of us who actually lived the events told in Blind Man's Bluff. Sure, some stories are free to tell, like the crazy times at the 'Horse and Cow', or the antics of 'Animal' Andrews, but many others would have been lost to time. Stories of not just the boats of DEVGRU ONE, but also those of boats tasked ad-hoc, both diesel and nuclear, with intelligence gathering are related, as are confrontations and challenges with the fleet of our one-time foe. Of great interest to me were the chapters dealing with the boats that had engaged in 'research' early in the Cold War, and the unique and harrowing tasks they carried out. While I served beside and under crewmen from some of these other boats, much of what they experienced could not be told (for obvious reasons); Blind Man's Bluff cast some of my former shipmates in a new light, and I understand better some of the more cryptic comments they made during our marathon bull sessions. Many, many, more stories are out there, deserving to be told, but will never see the light of day. Let the content Blind Man's Bluff stand in proxy for all the risky gambits, amusing sea stories, and daring exploits that took place in the shadows of the Cold War; it tells of the courage, inventiveness, and dedication of the sailors who went into the deep at a time when victory in the Cold War was still far from certain. Fittingly, what you read in this book is only the tip of the iceberg, and the rest will remain forever submerged.

While I will not, cannot, comment on the absolute accuracy of events and timelines of the stories in this book, I will happily admit to having been a shipmate of men like 'Animal' Andrews, to have gotten stupid with my fellows at the Horse and Cow, and to having sailed on some of the most amazing missions any sailor could hope to sail.

Quite a unique book (8/8 people found this helpful)

Whilst owning a large library of books covering the Cold War period, I cannot recall another volume that covers the espionage role of submarines in such interesting, fascinating detail.

This book uncovers new tales and fleshes out details of other previously encountered stories. The research behind the stories is impressive, as is the level of access the authors seem to have obtained.

This book conveys an objective view of both countries activities during the period and doesn't suffer from the propaganda trap many other works suffer. However, it focuses more on the American escapades, probably due to Soviet secrecy hangovers.

The only slight disappointment is that this book covers a relatively small number of tales. However, this is balanced by the superb detail of each piece.

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

Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew

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