An eye-opening submarine account, impressively intelligent and full of insights.
In this final installment of an autobiographical trilogy, a Navy veteran recounts his tenure as the commander of a nuclear submarine during the Cold War.
McLaren was an instructor at the Naval War College in 1969 when he received the momentous news: He was to assume the command of the USS Queenfishat Pearl Harbor, one of 37 Sturgeon-class nuclear attack submarines. With impressive lucidity and exactitude, the author chronicles his tenure as commander until 1973, an extraordinary time that was “still fairly early in a Cold War that was increasing in intensity.” In fact, one mission in which the Queenfishencountered Soviet anti-submarine forces was haunted by a discomfiting ambiguity: “Whatever the case, it was our understanding that before we departed on this mission, the United States would not necessarily come to our assistance, diplomatically or otherwise.” McLaren focuses his remembrance on two historic operations—the first was a high-priority Cold War mission to the Russian Far East that included the surveillance of Soviet nautical maneuvers. In the other, the Queenfishperformed a hydrographic and oceanographic survey of the Siberian continental shelf, something that had never been accomplished by a sub before.
The author limns a remarkably vivid tableau of life on a sub—the extraordinary peril and the relentless discipline it demanded. One might quibble that his inclination toward granular comprehensiveness can become exhausting: Readers are furnished accounts of garbage disposal and periscope techniques, topics unlikely to grab or sustain the attention of a general audience. Nevertheless, this is a unique tour of a little-known world led with great expertise—McLaren ultimately earned the Distinguished Service Medal for his accomplishments. In addition, he provides a thoughtful look at the enormous pressures of submarine life—one of his shipmates who was a cryptologic technician began to hear the voice of his girlfriend emanating from a ventilation outlet. The author concluded: “It had all proved too much for him. I would like to think this mishap could have been prevented, but the truth was that, as far as I knew, there was no effective system at the time for the psychological screening of individual members of special teams before they boarded a Cold War mission submarine.” McLaren’s prose is unfailingly precise and clear; he writes with a self-assured sense of authority but without a hint of condescending hubris. Furthermore, this is not a self-congratulatory work; while the author avoids flights of poetic fancy, he does not dodge opportunities for candid introspection. Moreover, this remembrance should be of special interest to those in search of a deeper understanding of the nature of the Cold War and the abiding hostilities between the United States and its principal rival at the time, the Soviet Union. As the author makes disturbingly clear, this Cold War was often on the cusp of turning hot, and it was a combination of strategic rectitude and good fortune that such an outcome was finally avoided. McLaren’s recollection is as dramatically captivating as it is historically edifying.
An eye-opening submarine account, impressively intelligent and full of insights.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8173-2092-8
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Univ. of Alabama
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORY | HISTORY | MODERN | MODERN | MILITARY | MILITARY | GENERAL HISTORY | GENERAL HISTORY
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.
Pub Date: April 26, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2
Page Count: 513
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
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