The Silent War, by John Piña Craven, Simon & Schuster, 2001, 304 pp, $14.00 (softcover) This is not a sequel or companion to Blind Man’s Bluff*, although anyone seeing it might immediately jump to that conclusion. Dr. John Craven was a central figure in that book, an account of the use of submarines in intelligence operations by the United States since WW II. Craven appears in it as the architect of Halibut’s special modifications, and other intelligence operations, and it’s a thrilling read. But The Silent War looks at US submarine operations from a completely different angle. An autobiography, it traces Craven’s activities through a succession of critical defense programs, including the development of the Polaris submarine, deep submergence subs like the DSRV, NR-1, Aluminaut and Trieste II, and of course intelligence operations like Project Jennifer. Thus, while it crosses the path of Blind Man’s Bluff occasionally, most of the book covers new ground. Its theme is the creation of a strategic nuclear deterrent and its maintenance, and Craven has a lot to say. An enlisted battleship sailor during WW II, Dr. Craven got his engineering degree after the war and immediately became immersed (pardon the pun) in submarine and deep submergence technology. As we follow his career, he shows the national and navy leadership making decisions about nuclear deterrence and the use of a navy is support of US policy. Dr. Craven was involved in many different programs, and sometimes we don’t get the full picture, because he still believes a security clearance means something. Scrupulous about what he can and cannot say, he still manages to entertain, inform, and sometime frighten. The most startling revelation concerns Project Jennifer, the CIA operation to raise a sunken Soviet Golf-class submarine lost in 1968. The story of the attempt by Glomar Explorer to raise the vessel, and its partial success, has now appeared several times, and was well described in Blind Man’s Bluff. Dr. Craven, though, places it in a larger context. He tells how the Golf was first located by acoustic data – well south of her normal patrol area. While the Soviets looked for her where she was supposed to be, we found her where she sank – based on the sound of a large explosion while she was surfaced. Dr. Craven asks what a Golf-class SSB was doing well outside her patrol area, on the surface, and what might have caused the explosion. He raises the possibility that the sub was a rogue, and was preparing to launch her missiles. The crew may have caused the explosion as they tried to bypass the warhead’s safety circuits, or an unreliable missile might have detonated when they attempted to launch it. Although fantastic, his logic is impossible to ignore, and backed up by knowledge few posses. Craven is a fascinating individual. An inveterate poker player, he was smart enough to resolve more than one crisis with an imaginative engineering solution. He was also tough enough to hold his own with Admiral Rickover, who he dealt with several times during his career. It’s a good book, easy to read and full of new information. It’s definitely worth picking up. * Blind Man’s Bluff, by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Public Affairs Press, 1998, reviewed in SITREP #16, Apr ‘99) BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #23 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history and related articles are available at http://www.magweb.com