Bibliograph

The taking of K-129, how the CIA used Howard Hughes to steal a Russian sub in the most daring covert operation in history, Josh Dean

Type

Label

The taking of K-129, how the CIA used Howard Hughes to steal a Russian sub in the most daring covert operation in history, Josh Dean

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-420) and indexIncludes filmography

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The taking of K-129

Nature of contents

bibliographyfilmographies

Oclc number

992688969

Responsibility statement

Josh Dean

Sub title

how the CIA used Howard Hughes to steal a Russian sub in the most daring covert operation in history

Summary

A true story of Cold War espionage and engineering reveals how the CIA and the U.S. Navy, using the involvement of Howard Hughes as a cover story, spent six years and nearly a billion dollars to steal a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine after it sank in the Pacific Ocean"In the early hours of February 25, 1968, Russian nuclear-armed submarine K-129 left Siberia on a routine combat patrol to Hawaii. Then it vanished. As the Soviet Navy searched in vain for the lost vessel, a small, highly classified American operation found it--wrecked at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The sub lay three miles down, but the potential intelligence assets on board--the nuclear warheads, battle orders, and cryptological machines--presented an extraordinary opportunity. So began Project Azorian, a top secret mission that took six years, cost an estimated $800 million, and would become the largest and most daring covert operation in history. After the US Navy declared retrieving the sub "impossible," the mission fell to the CIA's burgeoning Directorate of Science and Technology, which commissioned the most expensive ship ever built [the Hughes Glomar Explorer] and told the world that it belonged to the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who would use the mammoth vessel to mine rare minerals from the ocean floor. In reality, a vast network of spies, scientists, and engineers attempted a project even crazier than Hughes's reputation: raising the sub directly under the watchful eyes of the Russians, at a time when nuclear annihilation was a constant fear and the opportunity to gain even the slightest advantage over one's enemy was worth massive risk."--Jacket

resource.variantTitle

How the CIA used Howard Hughes to steal a Russian sub in the most daring covert operation in history

Classification