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No espionage missions have been kept more secret than those involving American submarines. Now, Blind Man's Bluff shows for the first time how the Navy sent submarines wired with self-destruct charges into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. It unveils how the Navy's own negligence might have been responsible for the loss of the USS Scorpion, a submarine that disappeared, all hands lost, thirty years ago. It tells the complete story of the audacious attempt to steal a Soviet submarine with the help of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and how it was doomed from the start. And it reveals how the Navy used the comforting notion of deep sea rescue vehicles to hide operations that were more James Bond than Jacques Cousteau.Blind Man's Bluff contains an unforgettable array of characters, including the cowboy sub commander who brazenly outraced torpedoes and couldn't resist sneaking up to within feet of unaware enemy subs. It takes us inside clandestine Washington meetings where top submarine captains briefed presidents and where the espionage war was planned one sub and one dangerous encounter at a time. Stretching from the years immediately after World War II to the present-day operations of the Clinton Administration, it is an epic story of daring and deception. A magnificent achievement in investigative reporting, it feels like a spy thriller, but with one important difference-- everything in it is true. Read more
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The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America
Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Hardcover
Interesting, informative, enlightening, a very good read. Very happy to have found this book in great condition. It is like new, even better than described by the seller. A+++++ for item and seller.
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2026 by Brenda K
Sontag and Drew - what an amazing job of reporting and investigational reporting. Some say they are traitors for publicizing the raw courage and guts of America's special project boats (submarines) throughout the Cold War, other think they are heroes. No matter which side of the coin you call, the stories in this book are riveting and make the point that the courage of our submariners and the skills of the Crews who qualify to wear American Navy Dolphins are superb. For added enjoyment, head to Spotify and look for the albums of submarine songs by Tommy Cox (who is mentioned in the book), and Booby Reed who is not. Their ballads will add a dimension to the book that is unique and should be included with it. Tommy Cox was a 'spook' on the special projects boats - listen to the ballad "Tango Charlie" to get the idea. Look for his albums 'Take Her Deep' and 'In Honor Of.' He served for 21 years in the U.S. Navy and composed the theme song 'Blind Man's Bluff' for the PBS special on Sontag and Drew's book. Bobby Reed, now an electrical engineer, partnered with Tommy Cox to put out 'Brothers of the Dolphin' which captures the humor and intensity of submarining missions. Bobby was on 'Boomers' (Missile Boats) for 6 years. When you get done with this book, you will understand that there is just about nothing a U.S. Fast Attack Crew can't make their boat do. When you pick the book up to read it, you'll hear two klaxon 'Oooogas' and the call to 'Take Her Deep.' Dive, Dive!
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Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2015 by Peter B. Mapes
Format: Mass Market Paperback
I believe a little background is necessary before I begin the review. I approached this book knowing virtually nothing about the function of submarines in American espionage activities. I vaguely knew that American subs patrolled the Russian coast. I also knew that the one person who had served on a sub with whom I had a friendship answered all my submarine questions with "I can't talk about that." So, I was hoping that the book would provide me with a greater understanding of the spying role of submarines. The book succeeded beyond my expectations. The authors did an excellent job describing the missions and their importance to the American intelligence efforts. But, the technical descriptions were not the features of the book that impressed me the most. Instead, I was greatly impressed by the dedication, ingenuity, and bravery of the men who were depicted in the book. Whether named or not, these men are all depicted as showing an incredibly strong sense of duty. The authors do a great job of showing that this sense was necessary in order to cope with the various emotional and physical strains that submarine service inflicted. Readers of the book will come away with the same feeling of admiration for these men that the authors clearly feel. Blind Man's Bluff isn't perfect. Several of the incidents are told in a "breathless" style that is more suited for a work of fiction than a piece of non-fiction. And the book does suffer from a slight lack of details, which is undoubtedly a result of the still classified nature of these missions. But these are minor quibbles. The book is a must read for anyone who is interested in American military efforts, and a should-be-read by anyone who wants to know just how some of their defense dollars were spent.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 1999 by Michael Lima
Format: Kindle
What a fantastic research job by the authors! This history grabs you and never lets go! I didn’t expect such a factual story to continue to grab and hold my interest. This has to be one of the most interesting and factual Submarine/Naval/Political History stories ever. I taught Anti Submarine warfare to P5M crews at FATUPAC from 1955 thru 1958,
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Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2024 by ShadyBrady
Format: Paperback
If you don't buy this book you will regret it forever! It's a truly awesome read!
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2025 by Daniel Starr
Format: Paperback
Great book
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2025 by vinny
Format: Mass Market Paperback
This book tells alot of interesting stories about the submarine service. It is by no means a comprehensive history of cold war submarine operations, or even of submarine intelligence work. It focuses on a few interesting stories out of more than 50 years worth of similar untold tales. John Craven comes off as a genius. He seems to have figured out exactly what happened to Scorpion. To this day, the navy officially disputes his solution, but if he was wrong, why was he able to predict the exact location on the sea floor (within an 1/8th of a mile) where Scorpion's wreckage would be found? James Bradley also appears to have been a genius, coming up with the remarkable idea of tapping the soviets' undersea telephone cables, somthing that was done for over 20 years. Admiral Hyman Rickover comes off as abusive and dictatorial. As many previous reviewers have noted, the authors do not make much of an attempt to balance Rickover's character flaws against his remarkable accomplishments. The CIA comes off looking terrible, wasting over 500 million dollars on crazy scheme to lift a sunken Soviet submarine off the bottom of the ocean in one piece. The sub and its missiles were already obsolete by several generations, so, even if the operation had been successful, there could have been no intelligence payoff to compensate for the money spent. The authors' politics don't come into play until late in the book, when they are discussing Ronald Reagan. Then they betray the reflexive leftism and contempt for Reagan that must be a prerequisite for employment at the New York Times. Also, the general tone of the book is that the U.S. was wrong to pursue intelligence so aggressively. They write very approvingly of the mid-1970s backlash against the intelligence services led by such as Senator Frank Church. On the whole, however, the authors' New York leftism does not detract much from what is generally excellent storytelling.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2002 by David Read
Format: Hardcover
Because the information in the book came mostly from numerous extensive interviews with former members of the U.S. Navy's submarine espionage service, the reader might expect the book to be full of unabashed praise for said service. On the contrary, the book is quite objective: it reveals both the good side and dark side of the service; the major successes in intelligence gathering and the clever and daring methods by which it was gathered, as well as the carelessness and neglect that resulted in the loss of SSN Scorpion, and the hubris and bad judgement that led to the construction of the Glomar Explorer. It also includes an appendix giving some details of the disasters Soviet submariners endured, such as the reactor accident on one submarine which would have killed everyone on board if 8 crew members had not volunteered to go into the reactor compartment to jury-rig a coolant pump. All 8 died a week later of severe radiation exposure. All in all a very worthwhile read.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2021 by SCS