Rating: 
Summary: Topical and Downright Interesting Read
Review: This book reads like a Clancy novel, except it really happened. And with the recent Kursk disaster in the Russian Navy the book becomes all the more topical. It takes us into a world that has been covered by "national security" for so long that the government has forgotten that there is a human side to the whole submarine espionage equation. This book takes us into the subs, and into their crews like nothing before. There have been novels hinting at some of this, and news stories about some of this, but this book is the total look at the whole thing.A reader can not help but be enthralled by what happens under the ice, or in the Western Pacific during some of the operations described here. The fact that this is still going on, and with good reason I might add, only adds to the value of the book. This book is worth the price, and worth the time to read. Go out and order it, you won't be sorry. But be forewarned, set aside enough time to read it in large doses, because you will NOT want to put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine book - but disappointing
Review: I have had this book on my Wish list for quite a long time. So, when I finally went on vacation, I took this as my number one book. As soon as we hit the beach I tore into it. And what did I find? A book that never actually went beyond stories I had already heard. I am a little surprised that the authors did "extensive" research as I have seen / heard most of these same stories many times before on PBS TV, Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc. The interviews were by far the best part. In short, if you have not heard a lot of submarine stories before, then you will love this book. If you are a junkie of the espionage / spy genre on TV (real TV folks, not made up stuff) then skip this book. I give this book 3 stars only because I was hoping for more.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Submarine History
Review: Blind Man's Bluff is a compilation of stories about one of the most under-appreciated and least known professions in the world. This book portrays the danger submariners operate in everyday and details some of the most exuberant and most tragic events in submarine history. The authors' work is truly a great creation of which they can be proud. I only hope that some day the authors' are able to produce the story of the Thresher as well.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: As a US submariner, and a son of a submariner during the end of Vietnam, I can atest to the fact that this is probably the best Submarine book out there. This book allows us to retain our vows of secrecy that we made when we joined; all we have to say is, "here read this..." Deepest thanks to the authors for their dedication and faultless protrayal of the submarine community of then and now. Also to our shipmates on the Thresher, Scorpion, and other subs, US and foreign, that remain on eternal patrol.
Rating:
Summary: "...show must go on..."
Review: "...the proud American sailors who ... keep the peace throughout the world..." Yeah... I was in the (then-Soviet) navy 20 years ago (not subs, however). This book is a useful additional source of info. Now, as I live and work in North America, it is stunningly evident that people around the world are very much the same. BTW, a monopoly (any monopoly?) is harmful, correct me if I'm wrong. We are living in interesting times...
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing and Well Researched Black Ops History
Review: One of the better and more journalistically and historically correct books on the subject. I rather expected this type of cautious and detailed research to come from Sontag and her cohorts, and I am pleased to say that they did not disappoint me. The authors go into excellent detail on the development of covert submarine spy operations, and have obviously interviewed many officers and crew who were in on those actual operations. The sources are kept nameless and anonymous (as they should be), but are far too detailed to have come solely from Pentagon or bureaucratic sources not actually there on the submarines. My guess is that Sontag and her coauthors probably interviewed over 100 different sources. They cite discrepancies in the book Hostile Waters as well as the movie version of this book which claims that the Los Angeles Class Submarine USS Augusta rammed Britanov's Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarine prior to the Reagan-Gorbechev Iceland Talks. This is most certainly validated by Britanov himself who has since come out publicly stating that he is positive that no ramming occurred. The theories put forth on the sinking of the USS Scorpion also appear to be validated by recent public statements in the Naval community. This sub was probably sunk by a torpoedo battery malfunction which cooked off the torpedo during routine maintenance. These are only a two of the many really interesting stories inside of this very well researched book. Definitely worth buying!
Rating:
Summary: Good Inside Look--But Not The Final Story
Review: BLIND MAN'S BLUFF The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage By Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (with Annette Lawrence Drew) Public Affairs. 352 pp., $25. Reviewed by Lee Gaillard There, on the flickering video screen: intermittent bumps in the sand. They'd found it--the vital telephone cable snaking across the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk to connect the Russian sub base at Petropavlovsk with Vladivostok and with the Sovietnaval high command in Moscow. Maneuvering carefully across the seabed till it squatted next to the cable, special operatives from U.S. nuclear submarine Halibut planted the futuristic field-induction tap pod. Twenty feet long, it weighed six tons and was powered by a nuclear-isotope generator. It was 1972, the height of the Cold War, and for several years from this pod would flow absolutely priceless streams of information on Soviet naval strategy and deployments. In addition, the authors of Blind Man's Bluff reveal for the first time the subsequent story of SSN-683 Parche, recipient of seven Presidential Unit Citations forsimilar hazardous, top-secret missions to the frigid Barents Sea to creep inside Soviet waters to plant other tap pods next to the communications cable leading into the harbor of Murmansk. Christopher Drew is a special projects editor with The New York Times; co-author Sherry Sontag has written for The National Law Journal as well as The New York Times. In Blind Man's Bluff, their tales of postwar U.S. attack submarine adventures include not only espionage, but also collisions with Soviet subs, interference by Admiral Rickover and the CIA, and everyday dangers that plague submariners--from battery fires to flooding caused by faulty garbage disposal units. Indeed, their superb investigative reporting solves a 30-year mystery. Using strong evidence gathered by deep-submergence researcher John Craven and Charles Thorne (a torpedo quality control engineer), they show how the unexplained 1968 sinking of nuclear attack submarine Scorpion (and the loss of all 99 crew members) was probably caused by a faulty torpedo battery that, bursting into flame, initiated a low-order detonation of the warhead's 330 pounds of HBX explosive. We are then told of subsequent "massive evasion" by the Navy, of missing files, and of Naval Ordnance's "withholding critical information" concerning the flawed battery design. Submarine espionage? There are those who treat it as a game, macho and potentially deadly, in which a case of scotch is offered to the crew of the first American sub to force a Soviet sub to surface--but also one in which special self-destruct explosive charges will be detonated by the captain should a sub be caught and boarded. Some commanders oversee equipment right out of James Bond. Take, for example, the NR-1 and the nuclear-powered SSGN-587 Halibut, whose former guided missile hanger (the "Bat Cave") housed a Univac 1124 computer as well as several two-ton, sensor-laden 'fish' that found the sunken Soviet Golf II missile submarine and located those telephone cables at the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. Its stern carried a secret decompression chamber for the divers ("spooks") tapping those cables. Much smaller and able to take its crew down 3000 feet, the NR-1 (also nuclear-powered) featured underwater lights, a grappling arm, and (not mentioned by the authors) two center-mounted, alcohol-filled truck tires for traversing the seabed. These and other subs retrieved key Soviet missile parts and photographed the lower hull and propellers of new Soviet subs--though the authors overlook important connections between propeller blade design and silent running. Such silence was crucial for Whitey Mack, who performed an unprecedented 47-day tail of a new Yankee Soviet nuclear ballistic missile sub, obtaining crucial sound signatures for SOSUS (SOund SUrveillance System) computer identification files, recording its evasion patterns, and mapping its patrol routes off the U.S. coast. Despite the strengths of such accounts, Blind Man's Bluff has occasional difficulties with technical detail. The authors' grasp of the function of double-hulled submarine construction is tenuous, and 80,000 lbs./sq.in. is the tensile strength of HY-80 steel, not the water pressure a hull plate can withstand. Given that gravitational acceleration is 32 feet per second, how could a fatally stricken, unpowered Soviet submarine have been "accelerating at 70 feet per second as it fell" toward the ocean floor? Questions also arise concerning scope and context. What about Baltic and Black Sea penetration, or data gathered by submarines during the 1961 Berlin Wall confrontation and 1962 Cuban missile crisis? And shouldn't the unique story of postwar American submarine espionage be set against the broader backdrop of other intelligence operations by undercover agents, reconnaissance aircraft (a number of which were shot down, their crews killed), as well as Corona and KH-series satellites? Blind Man's Bluff provides a valuable and tantalizing first look, but the definitive account is yet to be written. ###
Rating:
Summary: Good book for military history buffs
Review: "Blind Man's Bluff" is an entertaining and occasionally riveting account that tracks the history of U.S. submarine espionage operations during the Cold War. The authors uncover a number of excellent tales about the committed spooks and blue collar sailors who were truly on the front lines during this period. Their missions, including tailing Soviet subs, tapping Soviet undersea cables and monitoring Soviet nuclear tests rode the fine line between bravery and foolhardiness. Throughout the book the question keeps popping up, were some of these outlandish tactics worth the benefit to our national security? The authors, to their credit, are content to let the reader decide. The best recommendation for the book I can give is from a friend of a friend who is a sub commander. He recommended it when asked how one might begin to understand the mindset it takes to do what he does.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding reading
Review: This book has all kinds of interesting accounts of american missions in the 1950's to the 1990's. Clearly written, a must have for any military buff.
Rating:
Summary: The best account we'll get for now.
Review: Considering the recency of the events in this book, I believe the authors did a good job trying to bring as many facts and different stories in as possible. Maybe in 50 years we will get more information about what's really going on (minus the oral histories), but for now I think this is as complete a book as can be. Anyone could pick at the way the book flowed, that there were not enough stories, etc., but the mystique of the silent service was well conveyed in this book. It doesn't disappoint.
| 
