Book Review: Blind Man’s Bluff by Sherry Sontag & Christopher Drew

And every man on board knew,
When the going got rough,
In this game of "Blind Man's Bluff,"
Somehow he'd pull her through.

From "The Ballad of Whitey Mack"

Topic & Content

Published in 1998, this book covers various Cold War U.S. submarine espionage activities. Drawing upon official sources and anonymous testimony, investigative journalist Sherry Montag and reporter Christopher Drew conducted six years of research to draw back the veil behind the secretive operations of the U.S. Navy submarine force, the CIA, the NSA, and the ONI during their spying on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The book is organized as follows (I’ve added short chapter descriptions in parenthesis):

1. A Deadly Beginning (the loss of the USS Cochino (SS-345) in the Barents Sea)
2. Whiskey A-Go-Go (USS Gudgeon (SS-567) getting held down by Soviet depth charges & the first U.S. & Soviet nuclear-powered missile subs)
3. Turn to the Deep (the loss of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), John Craven (Navy Special Projects Office), the DSRV project, & the USS Halibut (SSGN-587) special projects sub)
4. Velvet Fist (USS Halibut and the search for the sunken Soviet K-129 ballistic missile sub)
5. Death of a Submarine (the loss & search for the USS Scorpion (SSN-589))
6. “The Ballad of Whitey Mack” (Cmdr. Chester “Whitey” Mack, USS Lapon (SSN-661), & tailing a Yankee-class sub)
7. “Here She Comes…” (USS Tautog‘s (SSN-639) collision with the Soviet Echo II sub)
8. “Oshkosh B’Gosh” (Operation Ivy Bells: USS Halibut places a tap on a Soviet undersea cable in the Sea of Okhotsk)
9. The $500 Million Sand Castle (Project Azorian AKA Jennifer: the Glomar Explorer attempts to recover the sunken K-129)
10. Triumph and Crisis (USS Parche (SSN-683) & USS Seawolf (SSN-575) cable tapping in the Barents and Okhotsk Seas)
11. The Crown Jewels (Reagan-era Cold War tensions, the John Walker spy ring, & USS Parche gathering intel on Soviet strategy in the Arctic)
12. Trust but Verify (Post-Cold War 1990s submarine espionage operations in the Middle East & the end of the special projects subs)

Thesis

The basic idea of this book is to relate to readers the stories of submariners and the decades-long role that submarines played in Cold War espionage activities for the U.S. government.

Author’s Background

According to the biographical blurb, Sherry Sontag is an investigative journalist who covers government and international affairs for the National Law Journal, as well as previously working for the New York Times. Christopher Drew is a special projects editor for the New York Times and has conducted investigative journalism in the past.

Critical Observations

Positives

Author’s note: I distinctly recall when this book was published in 1998, and I’ve always wanted to read it, but never got around to it. I was really interested in submarines at the time due to watching a lot of submarine movies and documentaries. Now that I work on a museum ship that’s a submarine, I figure that it’s high time I actually got around to reading this.

This book really made some waves when it was first published, and it still stands as one of the few books of its kind. That is: it’s a book that deals with Cold War submarine espionage. Most of the previous books I’ve read on submarines deal with WWII submarine operations and the technical features of the boats themselves (such as Eugene Fluckey’s Thunder Below, Lothar-Gunter Buchheim’s Das Boot, or John Alden’s The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy). As such, this was my first book on Cold War submarine activities, and the stories definitely have a different atmosphere to them. This isn’t a book about submarine action. It’s a book about submarine espionage. Contrary to what Hollywood movies depict, submarine torpedo battles were extremely rare, and even then, the last time a U.S. Navy submarine sank an enemy target was on 14 August 1945. The day before the Japanese surrendered.

As such, parts of the book read almost like a Cold War spy thriller, but with submarines replacing the secret agents (although the CIA, NSA, and Office of Naval Intelligence do play a role in this book). In my opinion, the craziest submarine operation, that nearly succeeded, was the attempted raising of the Soviet sub K-129 with the Glomar Explorer. That chapter literally reads like some kind of whacky science fiction story, but cooked up by the CIA with a Cold War twist. (Both the U.S. and Soviet governments attempted a lot of odd stuff during the Cold War, and this was one of them.) Therefore, this is probably the best book to read in order to get some idea of what contributions submarines made to the Cold War.

In a way, submarines are the original “stealth” vehicles, and they’re even stealthier than stealth aircraft, such as the F-22 or F-35. That’s because finding anything underwater is very difficult and subs are very quiet. This is made very apparent in the book when discussing the cable tapping operations, as well as the multiple instances of U.S. subs shadowing Soviet subs (not the mention the dangerous collisions that occasionally happened). Combined with the reserved nature of submariners and the secretive objectives of their missions, Blind Man’s Bluff really gives credence to why the submarine service is also known as the “Silent Service.” You will never hear about most of what they do.

Sontag and Drew’s writing is easy to read and provides a decent amount of detail about the operations they’re discussing. That fact that they had to work with the limits of classified information, maintain the anonymity of various parties, and yet, were still able to maintain a readable narrative is impressive in itself.

Negatives

As mentioned, this book made waves when it was published, but not all of them were necessarily well received. At the time of publication in 1998, some of the events mentioned in this book were still classified. While the authors have taken pains to keep the personal stories anonymous, many prominent figures (including people involved in naval intelligence) are mentioned by name. That tended to ruffle some feathers.

One of the tour guides I work with on the USS Blueback used to be a “spook” (cryptologic technician) in the Navy. He was aboard the USS Ronquil (SS-396) when she was held down by Soviet surface ships in 1963. They were trying to force the sub into Vladivostok. The Ronquil is mentioned on page 50, but thankfully he isn’t named in the book. He says that this book, while good, committed the faux pas of naming a few too many names. (Unlike Navy SEALs who keep selling publishers their book deals, submariners keep very much to themselves and are very hush-hush about their activities.)

Another criticism is that since the book is written by journalists, it naturally has a more popular tone to it. Given the journalistic tone (and probably the sensitive nature of the information) the chapter notes in the back of the book are fairly vague when it comes to attributing specific pieces of information. That is: the notes just mention the sources used, but don’t go into any further detail.

More of a personal critique, but not all of the stories are necessarily interesting. The stories involving shadowing Soviet subs are kind of dry given that it’s just one submarine quietly stalking another submarine. Also, the narrative tends to drag when it involves the political maneuvering of various parties and organizations. For example, the constant meddling of Admiral Rickover in seemingly every facet of submarine operations tended to get a bit annoying (probably to many people). I mean, he was the director of Naval Reactors, not the freaking Chief of Naval Operations or the Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic (COMSUBLANT).

Another critique is that this book is more than 20 years old at the time of writing. No doubt additional details and research have come out regarding many of these operations, the loss of the Scorpion, and subsequent submarine espionage missions that have occurred since 1998. However, given the secrecy, the odds of finding out much about the latter are highly unlikely at this time.

Evaluation (Does the content support the thesis?)

Ultimately, this is a book on a very unique topic. It does what few others do which is to give readers some insight into submarine operations during the Cold War. The writing and contents are clear and easy to follow. The main problems with this book are the (necessarily) vague nature of the notes, as well as the somewhat broad strokes it paints when discussing submarine espionage missions. However, much of the vagueness can be attributed to the authors needing to maintain the anonymity of certain sources. I’d recommend this book if you’re curious about what the U.S. submarine force has been up to since WWII. It’s a good starting point for further research on stories you might be interested in. You’ll find that while submarines weren’t involved in much combat, they operated in secret on many spy missions throughout the Cold War.