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

New York, NY, U.S.A.: PublicAffairs, 1998. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. depended heavily on submarines for intelligence gathering, whether tracking Soviet missile subs, monitoring Soviet harbors and missile tests or, in some cases, retrieving lost Soviet equipment. The U.S.S.R. responded with everything from comprehensive espionage operations to depth charge attacks on particularly intrusive snoopers. The broad outlines of this clandestine confrontation are relatively familiar, but the details have largely remained secret. Although the authors have based their book largely on interviews with submariners, intelligence operatives and politicians, they recognize the possibility of distortion and back up personal accounts with an elaborate and convincing system of verification. While necessarily incomplete, the resulting work depicts what was arguably the most successful long-term, large-scale intelligence operation in American history. From captains to seamen, the participants combined technical proficiency, courage and a cheerful scorn for regulations that often interfered with their missions. That mind-set was hardly calculated to avoid direct confrontations, and accidental collisions were not uncommon. The authors nevertheless make a solid case that the risk of a destabilizing incident was far outweighed by the gains of the campaign, especially given the depth of mutual ignorance during the Cold War. 352 pages. 16 pages of black-and-white photos. Top & bottom of spine bumped. Spine is creased. Some pages are creased. Some small tan dots on the front cover. The dust jacket top of spine & top right corner tip of front cover is slightly bumped. Rear cover bottom left corner tip is slightly rubbed. The front inside flap has a 1" crease across the bottom corner..