This weekend I picked up Blind Man’s Bluff by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. If you’re interested in the spy game and/or the Cold War era, this story of the U.S. program to use submarines to spy on the Soviets is a real treat. The book contains vivid descriptions of the courageous men who manned the subs and lived through harrowing, near death experiences of war games and the development trials of the U.S. nuclear sub force.

And for me, it showcases an era that I love: the time before political correctness took over, a time when men were really men, for good and for ill. Take, for example, the book’s description of a framed proclamation posted outside his office by Navy Admiral Jerauld Wright who, in the late 1950s, was commander of the Atlantic fleet. The admiral challenged his sub commanders to take on the Soviet sub commanders in the cat-and-mouse games between subs, in which the goal was to wear out the other side, forcing one commander to concede defeat by surfacing or backing off. From page 41 of the book:

Whereas, the presence of unidentified submarines in the approaches to the United States has been frequently reported, and

Whereas, the submarines have been uncooperative in declaring either their identity or their intent as is required by the customs and usages of honorable seamen, and

Whereas, tangible evidence that these surreptitious operations are being conducted would result in appropriate embarrassment to those involved.

Therefore, I do hereby pledge to donate one case of Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Brand of Quality Tennessee Sour Mash Corn Whiskey, made as our fathers made it for seven generations at the oldest registered whiskey distillery in the United States, established 1866, to the first Scene of Action Commander in the Atlantic who produces evidence that a “non U.S. or known friendly” submarine has been worn out.

In 1959, Admiral Wright awarded the Jack Daniels to Lt. Commander Theodore Davis of the USS Grenadier, which “wore out” a Soviet sub near Iceland following a nine-hour game. It was the first incident of a U.S. sub forcing a Soviet sub to surface.

Admiral Wright died in 1995 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.