A Cold, Cold War

I neglected to blog about this interesting article in yesterday's NY Times about the U.S.S. Queenfish, whose job it was to map the dark waters beneath the North Pole in an effort to make it easier to track Soviet submarines that prowled the waters with their own dark purpose; to find routes through the ice that would enable them to get close enough to the United States to launch their ICBM's swiftly and without reprisal. The article is actually something of a review of the book "Unknown Waters", which details the story of the Queenfish and her perilous trek through the Arctic and through waters the Soviets claimed for their own. If that's the sort of thing that interests you, I also highly recommend "Blind Man's Bluff", a 1998 book about some of the previously unknown/untold operations involving U.S. submarines and their attempts to spy on the Soviets by tapping underwater cables, sneaking close enough to the coastlines of the Soviet Union to listen in on communications or take a look at Soviet facilities, and provoking engagements with Soviet submarines and naval vessels in an effort to gauge their capabilities. The book offers fascinating reading about a time period when the survival of our nation hinged on the efforts of these submariners.