Synopses & Reviews
March 1968: three miles below the stormy surface of the North Pacific, a Soviet submarine lay silent as a tomb-its crew dead, its payload of nuclear missiles, once directed toward strategic targets in Hawaii, inoperable. No longer a real threat, the sub still presented an alluring target and it was not long before the CIA answered its siren call—even at the risk of igniting World War III.
Project AZORIAN—the monumentally audacious six-year mission to recover the sub and learn its secrets—has been celebrated within the CIA as its greatest covert operation and hailed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as the twentieth century's greatest marine engineering feat. While previous accounts have offered beguiling glimpses, none have had significant access to CIA personnel or documents. Now David Sharp, the mission's Director of Recovery Systems, draws upon his own recollections and personal records, ship's logs, declassified documents, and conversations with team members to shine a bright light on this remarkable but still little understood enterprise.
Sharp reveals how the CIA conceived, organized, and conducted AZORIAN, including recruiting the legendary Howard Hughes to provide the "ocean mining" cover story. He takes readers onto and beneath the high seas to show the problems faced by the crew during the operation, including potential Soviet intervention and tense moments when the recovery ship itself was in danger of breaking up. He also puts a human face on key players like Carl Duckett, the head of the CIA's Science and Technology Directorate; John Parangosky, AZORIAN's program manager; John Graham, designer of the Hughes Glomar Explorer; Curtis Crooke of Global Marine Development, co-creator of the "grunt lift" recovery concept; and Oscar "Ott" Schick, manager of the Lockheed-built capture vehicle and submersible barge.
A mammoth undertaking worthy of the most dramatic and spell-binding espionage fiction, Project AZORIAN harnessed American imagination and ingenuity at their highest levels. Featuring dozens of previously classified photos, Sharp's chronicle of that amazing operation plunges readers deep into the darkest shadows of the Cold War to produce the definitive account of an amazing mission.
Review
"An inside account by a participating CIA engineer, who describes in great detail the marvels that were the ship's recovery systems. The operation--one of the most ambitious intelligence projects ever attempted--is covered end to end in extraordinary detail."
Seapower Magazine
Review
"Crucial for all those interested in the true nature and capabilities of American intelligence."
Intelligencer
Review
"An outstanding book."
Proceedings, U.S. Naval Academy
Review
"A unique firsthand account of a genuine CIA 'mission impossible.' Intelligence buffs around the world should read and learn."--Tim Weiner, winner of the National Book Award for Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Review
"A gripping and unforgettable eyewitness account of high Cold War maritime espionage. I was spellbound from beginning to end."--Richard Rhodes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Synopsis
The only insider's account of Project AZORIAN, a wildly ambitious CIA operation to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine three miles below the ocean's surface during the height of the Cold War.
About the Author
David H. Sharp's long career in the CIA included communications support for the Bay of Pigs operation; chief communications engineer for the U-2 program; chief electronics engineer for the flight testing of OXCART, a top secret hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft program; and chief of research and development for covert photographic, audio surveillance, and communications devices used by CIA's foreign agents.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Genesis
A Soviet Submarine is Lost—and Found
CIA Gets in the Game
CIA Meets Global Marine
Go-Ahead
2. The Magic Trick
The Magician's Tools
Picking the Best Lie
Who's the Front Man?
Roles and Responsibilities
Keep a Low Profile
A Security System Named JENNIFER
The Headquarters Proxy
3. Living the Lie
Making Do with the Glomar II
The Glomar II Rides Again
The Seascope—From Minesweeper to Miner
4. Final Design
The Big Picture
The Heavy Lifter—Hughes Gomar Explorer
Three-Mile Gun Barrel—The Lifting Pipe
The Capture Vehicle Clementine
Now You See It, Now You Don't—The HMB-1
5. Getting Ready
Who's in Charge?
The Voyage to Pier E
Going Black
Trouble Starts Early
Clementine Meets the Explorer
Integrated System Testing
The Battle for Mission Approval
6. The Recovery Mission
En Route to the Target Site
Recovery Operations
Exploitation and Burial at Sea
What Went Right? And Wrong?
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
7. Matador
Still Alive in '75?
Redesign for the MATADOR Mission
Under Pressure to Get It Right
AZORIAN Blown
Enter: Brezhnev; Exit: MATADOR
Winding Down
The Failure and the Success of Azorian
Epilogue
AZORIAN Fallout on the CIA
International Relationships
Legal Issues
Maintaining AZORIAN Secrets
Some Mysteries Still Remain
Appendix A: Perceptions Management and Disiniformation
Appendix B: The Docking Problem
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index