tober 9, 1969, the New York Times ran a front-page story headlined New Soviet Subs Noisier Than Expected. The second reference is on page 273, when the NYT ran a five-column, three line headline: CIA Salvage Ship Brought up Part of Soviet Sub Lost in 1968, Failed to Raise Atom Missiles. These newspaper headlines were what Americans were reading everyday, leading to the fear that Soviets might have the one-up on warfare vehicles, or that they would salvage those missiles and use them against America. Also, if Americans could read so freely about what was happening with the military, the Russians could very easily be reading the same thing. Once again, the fear that Russians would use this knowledge against us was widespread. There were reports that the Soviet Union was racing to build its own atomic bombs, and there seemed no doubt that the Soviets were out to make a grab for world dominance. (Sontag, 5) This was the atmosphere of mistrust that gave birth to the Central Intelligence Agency and plunged its agents into an immediate duel with Soviet spies. This was the era of fear that inspired the West to once again join forces, now as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. And all of this was the inspiration for the blind mans challenge, the call for submariners in windowless cylinders to dive deep into a new role that would help the nation fend off this menace. (Sontag, 6) So we see that the fear was not only ever present, but justified.Sherry Sontags book is a goldmine when it comes to understanding why the U.S. felt so afraid of the Soviets. The Soviets had been developing missiles at a phenomenal rate ever since they were forced to back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Sontag, 93) This was common knowledge throughout the world. However, the U.S. was coming up with questions in their minds about what the possibilities were if the Soviets were in fact advancing in their technology. Was it possible that, just six years after the C...
