Red Star Rogue

[Norman T. Field]

Anybody else read the book Red Star Rogue? It alleges that the Soviet missle sub that sank off Hawai in '68 was about to nuke Pearl Harbor in a KGB plot to frame the Red Chinese. Also that the entire sub, in pieces, was recovered by the Glomar Explorer.

Real thought provoking stuff.

[Len Colby]

Anybody else read the book Red Star Rogue? It alleges that the Soviet missle sub that sank off Hawai in '68 was about to nuke Pearl Harbor in a KGB plot to frame the Red Chinese. Also that the entire sub, in pieces, was recovered by the Glomar Explorer.

Real thought provoking stuff.

Sounds interesting but far fetched to me. I don't think anyone would purposely want to set off nuclear war.

Did you find the author credible and compelling?

Can you summarize the author's main evidence/arguments?

Did he nave a national security background?

Len

[Norman T. Field]

Anybody else read the book Red Star Rogue? It alleges that the Soviet missle sub that sank off Hawai in '68 was about to nuke Pearl Harbor in a KGB plot to frame the Red Chinese. Also that the entire sub, in pieces, was recovered by the Glomar Explorer.

Real thought provoking stuff.

Sounds interesting but far fetched to me. I don't think anyone would purposely want to set off nuclear war.

Did you find the author credible and compelling?

Can you summarize the author's main evidence/arguments?

Did he nave a national security background?

Len

I don't have the book in front of me, but:

Yes, I found the author credible and compelling, with a background in the submarine service.

Main argument:

A hard line Russian faction, headed by Suslov and Andropov, both desparetly feared the Chinese and knew the Soviet economy was doomed. China had been given a very small number of nuclear capable Russian diesel subs while the Russians and Chinese were still friendly. The Chinese missles were inferior in range to the Russian product.

Special missles with plutonium traceble to Chinese sources were loaded onto a Russian sub very similar to what had been given to the Chinese. At this time, Soviet atomic arms were inventoried and distributed by the KGB. Additional 'crew' in the form of a Spetnaz unit (also KGB) was assigned to the sub at the last minute.

The sub was positioned with range of a Chinese missle and the sub taken over by the Spetnaz, who set about launching the missle. The missle exploded (detonators, not nuclear) owing to amatuer efforts to bypass the arming safeguards, which sunk the sub, breaking into several pieces on the ocean floor.

The US knew about the missle explosion owing to satelite surveilance, which is how they knew the location. The Glomar Explorer is created and used to recover all major pieces of the sub. The resultant evidence is used to prove to the Chinese the Russian intentions, and also given to Soviet moderates to understand what the radicals tryed to do. Most of the crew was found secured into the extreme front of the boat, implying confiment. At least some of the Spetnaz squad was identified and the fact that the crew was 20% larger than normal (the Spetnaz) was confirmed.

Can you summarize the author's main evidence/arguments?

This is a well written cohesive book with a lot of evidence presented. I would not have mentioned the book here if I didn't think it worthwhile. Seems to have had access to the recovery crew on the Glomar and other in depth sources.

Did he nave a national security background?

As I recall, the author's background is in the submarine service, so you might get a yes to this question.

I found this to be a real interesting book and I suspect others here will too. Give it a read.