Review: Silent Steel–The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion

5 Star, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Intelligence (Government/Secret), Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Security (Including Immigration)
Silent Steel
Amazon Page

First-Rate Cover Story Great Human Interest, Service Loyalty, February 6, 2008

Stephen Johnson

EDIT of 9 Feb 09: There is evidently a very strong community of submariners, mostly officers, none of whom were in service at the time the incident happened, most of whom have little intelligence experience and very small libraries, who feel they and only they are qualified to judget between the two books. My two reviews stand. Normal people will find the other book much better in terms of trying to get to a reasonable semblance of the truth. Better yet, skip both books and go right to those I list below.

This a superb individual effort using normally available materials. It fully merits five stars because it can be bought and read simultaneously with Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion, which leverages Freedom of Information demands, direct invesdtigative journalism (HUMINT), and the end of the Cold War which produced a treasure trove of valuable primary materials. If you buy only one book, buy the other one but I find reading books in twos and threes is more interesting.

See for context, other reviews and if attractive, the books also:
The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command
Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-1945
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth'
The Age of Missing Information (Plume)
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
The Pathology of Power – A Challenge to Human Freedom and Safety
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)

Vote on Review

Whole Earth Review Archives on Public Intelligence (Historical)

Whole Earth Review

1992

US

Whole Earth R Brand Army Green

1992

US

Whole Earth R Kapor et al We Need a National Public Network

1992

US

Whole Earth R Kleiner The Co-Evolution of Governance

1992

US

Whole Earth R Petersen Will the Military Miss the Market

1992

US

Whole Earth R Staple & Dixon Telegeography: Mapping the New World Order

1992

US

Whole Earth R Steele E3i: Ethics, Ecology, Evolution, and Intelligence

1992

US

Whole Earth R Tibbs Industrial Ecology: An Environmental Agenda for Industry

1991

US

Whole Earth R Brilliant Computer Conferencing: The Global Connection

1991

US

Whole Earth R Clay Genes, Genius, and Genocide

1991

US

Whole Earth R Elgin Conscious Democracy Through Electronic Town Meetings

1991

US

Whole Earth R Garcia Assessing the Impacts of Technology

1991

US

Whole Earth R Godwin The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Virtual Communities

1991

US

Whole Earth R Karraker Highways of the Mind

1991

US

Whole Earth R Lovins & Lovins Winning the Peace

1991

US

Whole Earth R Marx Privacy & Technology

1991

US

Whole Earth R Meeks The Global Commons

1991

US

Whole Earth R Rheingold Electronic Democracy: The Great Equalizer

1991

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Whole Earth R Schuman Reclaiming our Technological Future

1991

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Whole Earth R Warren & Rheingold Access to Political Tools: Effective Citizen Action

1991

US

Whole Earth R White Earthtrust: Electronic Mail and Ecological Activism

1991

US

Whole Earth R Whitney-Smith Information Doesn't Want

1991

US

Whole Earth R Wittig Electronic City Hall

1990

US

Whole Earth R Barlow Crime and Puzzlement: The Advance of the Law on the Electronic Frontier

1990

US

Whole Earth R Brand Outlaws, Musicians, Lovers, and Spies: The Future of Control

1990

US

Whole Earth R Dodge Life Work

1990

JP

Whole Earth R Ishii Cross-Cultural Communications & Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

1990

US

Whole Earth R Jordon III Restoration: Shaping the Land, Transforming the Spirit

1990

JP

Whole Earth R Kumon Toward Co-Emulation: Japan and the United States in the Information Age

1990

US

Whole Earth R Monschke How to Heal the Land

1990

US

Whole Earth R Shapard Observations on Cross-Cultural Electronic Networking

1990

US

Whole Earth R Vidal Founding Father Knows Best

1989

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Whole Earth R Berman The Gesture of Balance

1989

US

Whole Earth R Garfinkle Social Security Numbers: And Other Telling Information

1989

US

Whole Earth R Haight Living in the Office

1989

US

Whole Earth R Horvitz The USENET Underground

1989

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Whole Earth R Jaffe Hello, Central: Phone Conferencing Tips

1989

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Whole Earth R Johnson` The Portable Office

1989

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Whole Earth R Rheingold Ethnobotany: The Search for Vanishing Knowledge

1988

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Whole Earth R Baker, S. Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Baker, W. Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Brand The Information Wants to Be Free Strategy

1988

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Whole Earth R Coate Tales from Two Communities: The Well and the Farm

1988

US

Whole Earth R Ferguson Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Fields Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Hardin Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Hawkins Computer Parasites & Remedies–A Catalog of First Sightings

1988

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Whole Earth R Keen Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Kleiner Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Leary Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Nelson Gossip

1988

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Whole Earth R Newroe Distance Learning

1988

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Whole Earth R Pert The Material Basis of Emotions with Inset, Mind as Information

1988

US

Whole Earth R Rappaport Gossip

1988

US

Whole Earth R Thurow & Walsh Getting Over the Information Economy

1987

US

Whole Earth R Donaldson An Incomplete History of Microcomputing

1987

US

Whole Earth R Henson MEMETICS: The Science of Information Viruses

1987

US

Whole Earth R Horvitz An Intelligent Guide to Intelligence

1987

US

Whole Earth R Krause Bio-Acoustics: Habitat Ambience & Ecological Balance

1987

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Whole Earth R Roberts Electronic Cottage on Wheels

1986

US

Whole Earth R Fend & Gunther What Have You Got to Hide: Iraq Iran Basra Abadan

1986

US

Whole Earth R Minsky Society of Mind

1986

US

Whole Earth R Sanders Etiquette for the Age of Transparency

1986

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Whole Earth R Scxhwartz & Brand The World Information Economy

1986

US

Whole Earth R Thompson A Gaian Politics

1985

US

Whole Earth R Brand, Kelly, Kinney Digital Retouching: The End of Photography as Evidence of Anything

1985

US

Whole Earth R Hunter Public Image

1985

US

Whole Earth R Kleiner The Health Hazards of Computers: A Guide to Worrying Intelligently

1985

US

Whole Earth R Mander Six Grave Doubts About Computers

1983

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Whole Earth R Illich Silence is a Commons: Computers Are Doing to Communication What ā€¦

1982

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Whole Earth R Brand Uncommon Courtesy: A School of Compassionate Skills

1982

US

Whole Earth R Kayes Force Without Power: A Doctrine of Unarmed Military Service

1982

US

Whole Earth R Meadows Whole Earth Models & Systems

Threat Archives on Public Intelligence (1992-2006)

Threats

2004

NO

Threat Bjorgo Root Causes of Terrorism

2004

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Threat Kaplan The Saudi Connection to Terrorism

2004

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Threat Knapp Al Qaeda and the Mass Media (PSYOP Briefing)

2004

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Threat Knapp Al Qaeda and the Mass Media (Reference)

2004

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Threat Knapp Distortion in Islam and Jihad

2004

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Threat Knapp Diversity in Islam

2006

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Threat Daly Al Qaeda Against Saudi Oil

2006

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Threat Johnson Battle of Algiers and Its Lessons

2006

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Threat Seagraves Gold Warriors: New Epilogue, Further of US Theft of WWII Gold Loot

2006

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Threat Seagraves Gold Warriors New Chapter Seventeen

2006

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Threat Steele Who Is to Blamce?Ā  The Vice President and Us

2006

US

Threat Stern Al Qaeda Approach to US Muslims

2006

UK

Threat Story Crunch Time for CIA, Banks, and Related Thieves of $742 Trillion

2005

US

Threat Ellis Scenarios for Next Generation Crises in Latin America

2005

US

Threat GAO GAO Report: US Not Addressing Islamic Fundamentalism

2005

US

Threat OSS Somalia Piracy Quick Report

2005

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Threat OSS Report on Remote Detonation of Improvised Explosive Devices

2005

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Threat OSS PRC Trade in Latin America

2005

US

Threat Ray & Gross The Perfect Storm

2005

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Threat Steele Worksheet for Book Review on Crossing the Rubicon

2005

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Threat Steele Mother Nature as Terrorist

2005

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Threat Steele 9-11: Whoā€™s To Blame?Ā  One Manā€™s Opinion

2005

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Threat Thompson Is the Terrorism Threat Over-Rated?

2004

US

Threat Daly Globalization & National Defense (Ecological Economics)

2004

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Threat Louisiana Pre-Hurricane Katrina Study and Conclusions

2004

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Threat Palmer The Real Axis of Evil: 44 Dictators

2004

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Threat Peters Early Warning of Disease From Pattern Analysis

2004

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Threat Seagrave Transcript of Video on Stolen Gold Held by US Treasury & Citi-Bank

2004

US

Threat Vlahos Attachment to the Muslim Renovatio Memorandum

2004

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Threat Vlahos The Muslim Renovatio and U.S. Strategy

2004

US

Threat Vlahos The Muslims Are Coming

2004

US

Threat Vlahos Insurgency Within Islam

2003

US

Threat Danzip Countering Traumatic Attacks

2003

PRC

Threat OSS PRC Treaty & Trade Penetration of Latin America

2002

US

Threat Emerson & Steele American Jihad Map

2002

US

Threat Steele ACFR, 19 Cities: 9-11, U.S. Intelligence, & the Real World

2000

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Threat Steele Georgetown/AWC: Non-Traditional Threats

1998

US

Threat Steele TAKEDOWN: Targets, Tools, & Technocracy

1994

US

Threat Steele 6th National Threat Symposium: New Directions in Information Sharing

2005

NGO

Threat NGO Changing Face of Global Violence

2005

NGO

Threat NGO Human Security Audit

2004

US

Threat Pelton Robert Young Pelton on Dangerous World

2004

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Threat Steele Three Book Review Relevant to Global War on Terror (GWOT)

2003

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Threat Copeland Analysis of the New Paradigm for Terrorism

2003

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Threat Manwaring Street Gangs: New Urban Insurgency

2003

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Threat Manwaring War & Conflict: Six Generations

2003

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Threat Pelton Summary of Presentation on Worldā€™s Most Dangerous Places

2002

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Threat Betts The Next Intelligence Failure: The Limits of Prevention

2002

NL

Threat Jongman World Conflict and Human Rights Map 2001-2002

2002

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Threat Wheaton Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: A Model

2002

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Threat Wheaton Virtual Afghanistan: Modeling a Transition from Authoritarian Rule

2001

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Threat Godson Governments and Gangs

2001

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Threat Heidenrich Early Warning & Complex Monitoring of Ethnic Genocide (Slides)

2001

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Threat Heidenrich Early Warning & Complex Monitoring of Ethnic Genocide (Text)

1998

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Threat Transnational Enemies: Threats Without Names

1998

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Threat Glaebus Metaphors & Modern Threats: Biological, Computer, Cognitive Viruses

1997

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Threat Fialka War by Other Means: Economic Espionage In (Against) America

1997

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Threat Schwartau Information Warfare: The Weapons of the Information Age

1997

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Threat Tenney Cyber-Law and Cyber-Crime: Spamming Methods and Costs

1996

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Threat Keuhl School of Information Warfare Threat and Strategy: Shifting Paradigms

1996

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Threat Oā€™Malley Countering the Business Intelligence Threat

1996

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Threat Strassmann U.S. Knowledge Assets: The Choice Target for Information Crime

1996

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Threat Winkler Electronic Industrial Espionage: Defining Ground Zero

1994

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Threat Whitney-Smith Refugees: Weapon of the Post Cold War World–Counter Offensive: IW