Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea by John Pina Craven, John Pina Craven ISBN: 0-684-87213-7 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (36 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An invaluable American finally gets to tell his story
Comment: John Pina Craven was key to helping keep the Cold War cold and eventually collapsing the Soviet Union. His work in the late 1950s for the Special Projects Office under the U.S. Navy led to the development of the first ballistic missile submarines and their missile, the Polaris. Other projects included underwater labs, saturation diving, and searching for lost objects on the seafloor of major importance to national security, including a Soviet ballistic missile sub that went down in the Pacific in 1968. Was it about to fire a nuclear missile at the U.S.? You'll be shocked by his conclusion on the subject. Craven is not a man many people are familiar with, but his work has made headlines many times over. He tells his stories with as much detail as national security will let him, which at times was a constraint that led to stories being oversimplified. His overuse of technical jargon made the book a little hard to understand to a laymen, even one with a rudimentary knowledge of military hardware. All things considered, I walked away from the book feeling a lot more knowledgeable about how our nation prepared for it's defense against the Soviet Union and happy that people like John Craven work for us and not the other side.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Great Scientist's Memoirs
Comment: Dr. Craven is the United States' greatest living scientist and a great role model for any student. He no doubt makes other apparently successful scientists feel inferior because of how many different breakthroughs and new technologies he pioneered and perfected. The assignments, accomplishments and honors throughout his life are so impressive that if he was British he would have been knighted long before now. However, in Hawaii Dr. Craven can't even get elected to Congress! Unfortunately, Dr. Craven is not as good a writer as he is a scientist or even a politician. I was going to give this book three stars but I must give it four instead because of the historical significance this book carries. This book will likely still be a historical resource many years from now. This is not a book to read for fun. This is Dr. Craven's sometimes rambling recollections of the unclassified and declassified elements of his double life. Much of his secret life as America's top undersea military scientist is still classified and likely to remain classified for the near future, therefore this will be one of the few definative factual works on the Cold War undersea activities of both the U.S. and Russia. Don't expect any great suspense, action, plot, continuity or revelation in this book beyond his startling "Red September" conclusion. This is an incomplete autobiography written by a man who is constrained not to reveal any still classified information under penalty of treason. Dr. Craven demonstrated his brilliance throughout his naval and academic career and was quite adept at selecting great support people. Therefore, I can't believe Dr. Craven wasn't wise enough to seek help from some top literary professionals in the preparation of this book. If he indeed actually had any people helping him on this book, all they accomplished was the successful sabotage of his life story. It should not take much polish to make such a truly facinating life story into a real 5 star book. Still, for anyone interested in nuclear subs, Polaris missles, national nuclear deterence policy, saturation diving, deep sea recovery and underwater intelligence gathering you should read this book because it is written by the man who had a hand in perfecting all these elements which are vital to the U.S.A. now and for decades to come. No one else in the world can give you a first hand account of the development of all these components!
Rating: 3
Summary: Was the Cold War Silent?
Comment: This is not a work of documented history; the events described were drawn from undocumented personal recollection. It was written as a rebuff to BLIND MAN'S BLUFF written two years earlier which had exposed his activities working with the Polaris missile project.
Thus, he endeavors to present the facts by one who was involved from the very beginning on a four-decade program of undersea intelligence which must remain secret.
Our government is releasing highly classified information via the Internet, not just in Washington, but in Huntsville, AL where the Redstone Arsenal (full of missiles) is located. I discovered this a few years ago from the secretary of one of the high offices. Her job was to enter this information so that anyone anywhere in the world could have access to this important research which should have remained secret.
This book does not expound upon some of the projects, but now it is available to the public and to foreigners. Just because the Soviet Union has fallen apart, that does not mean there are not other foes who can use this intelligence against us.
John Craven lives in Hawaii and has met with a group of the former submariners for a breakfast gathering the past twenty three years to recall things which are better left unsaid. To wish it had not received the notoriety will be too late to protect this nation's safety.
The index helps to find the references he makes to the action taking place under the oceans. It would have been better if he had used the history of this program as a basis of a fictional account. That way, no one would know what is true and what not.
 |
Title: Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, Annette Lawrence Drew ISBN: 006103004X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 06 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Dark Waters: An Insider's Account of the NR-1, the Cold War's Undercover Nuclear Sub by Lee Vyborny, Don Davis ISBN: 0451207777 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Spy Sub: Top-Secret Mission to the Bottom of the Pacific by Roger C. Dunham ISBN: 0451407970 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Hostile Waters (Hostile Waters) by Peter Huchthausen, Igor Kurdin, R. Alan White ISBN: 0312966121 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Rising Tide: The Untold Story of the Russian Submarines That Fought the Cold War by Gary E. Weir, Walter J. Boyne ISBN: 0465091121 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
