A while back, I wrote a post about the Cuban Missile Crises. I mentioned many of the incidents that occurred over those thirteen days, of which any one could have led to a nuclear conflagration. One of those confrontations was about a Russian submarine who, after constant harassment by a US destroyer, felt itself in dire straits and was about to fire a nuclear torpedo at the destroyer, halted only by the refusal of one of the three officers needed to approve the firing command. That may have been as close as we’ve ever come to the end of the world.

Ironically, though the Missile Crisis was the ultimate, epic event of the five decade Cold War, over that period was an ongoing under-the-table secret war of espionage and intelligence gathering. The CIA and NSA were leaders in this battle, using satellite technology and other methods to spy on Russia. But there’s one effort that went on on an almost daily basis, one of which I believe many American were unaware of. And I just read a book telling of this amazing story, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.

I’m sure most of us have always had an interest in spy stories. Me, I grew up watching all those great James Bond movies. I even just the other day watched an oldie flick from the 60’s, In Like Flint, which, if anything, played upon James Bond in a comic, sarcastic way.

But in Blind Man’s Bluff, there’s true danger and adventure in the missions these sailor embarked upon on an almost daily basis. It was their job to go to sea, weeks and months at a time, and track the Soviet subs in an effort to learn their tactics and be able to destroy them before they could unleash their missiles on us in event of a first strike. But even more interesting is the tale of our subs going into Russian waters and tapping into huge communication lines, allowing us to listen in on the Russian military messages.

There’s also times opposing subs actually bumped into each other under the ocean, playing their games of search, almost underwater tag, or blind man’s bluff, which the sailors considered they were playing. And, of course, as in any military endeavor, there’s the chance of accident and loss and this book chronicles a few tragic incidents of that era.

It’s hard to imagine, after growing up during the time when Russia was our bitter enemy, that the Cold War has now been over a quarter of a century. Unfortunately, we have other enemies now and things aren’t done in such a technological way as with submarines. Still, it was an interesting and fascinating time and I actually have a friend who served on one of these subs, and he’s shared many a story with me about his service, at least the parts that aren’t still classified. And to this day, those who did this kind of service are still bound to the oaths of secrecy they took. But that’s the kind of world it was, one of paranoid secrecy.