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

Book description

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Adventure, ingenuity, courage and disaster beneath the sea: the remarkable reality of Cold War submarine warfare

In Blind Mans Bluff, veteran investigative journalist Sherry Sontag and award-winning New York Times reporter Christopher Drew reveal an extraordinary underwater world. Showing for the first time how the American Navy sent submarines…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Blind Man's Bluff as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I used to think there had been no epic naval battles during the Cold War, but this book made me reconsider: a decades-long battle, that’s what the cat-and-mouse game between U.S. and Soviet submariners appears to have been.

The intensity of the deadly contest played with very few rules is shocking, and I am still not sure what to make of all that recklessness. Perhaps great powers have a higher pain threshold than we tend to assume.

From Constantine's list on epic naval battles of the 20th century.

The Cold War wasn’t always so cold, especially not in the icy depths where American and Soviet submarines faced off on a daily basis.

Taking an anthology approach to narrative nonfiction, Blind Man’s Bluff covers the wildest, most ambitious, and deadly stories of the era, including tapping undersea cables, secret spying operations, nuclear close calls, and how the CIA enlisted eccentric innovator Howard Hughes to steal a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine off the bottom of the ocean.

Rarely are those outside the military and the intelligence community given accurate insight into submarine operations. This book provides accurate information on some of the activities U.S. submarines performed during the Cold War. Readers will learn where they went, the dangers their crews faced and the challenges they overcome. Much of the technology developed was used in other tasks such as determining what caused the nuclear submarine Scorpion to sink. 

As a retired Naval Officer and Naval Aviator, I can only begin to imagine the problems the authors had in (a) getting approval for many of the individuals to speak…

From Marc's list on U.S. Naval history.

If you love Blind Man's Bluff ...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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