Conlon+Berry

What did diesel and nuclear powered submarines keep the piece between Soviet Union and United States during the cold war

A) Scope of investigation This project is to show **what was the purpose of diesel and nuclear powered submarines and how they kept the piece between the United States and the Soviet Union?** I will be looking at the Purpose of the subs in the cold war by looking at there missions and how submarines inflused the nuclear deterrence policy and MAD. By using the book Blind Man’s Bluff The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage, and by internet sorces and an essay by an proffesor Leavitt-Alcantar. B) Summary of evidence

Submarines purpose in cold war
 * One was “gathering intelligence about Soviet navel installations or looking for signs that the military was preparing an offensive against the U.S. or NATO allies.” A important purpose so we knew where they bases where and to see navel improvements
 * Another was “ Americas nuclear fast-attack subs would track and trail Soviet ballistic subs for their locations and patrols”. Important because helped the United States know where the Soviet sub where.
 * Another was taping the cables of the Soviet Union

Submarines role in nuclear deterrence and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)
 * “Responsibility for the American nuclear deterrence arsenal would be distributed among land based inter-continental ballistic missile, intercontinental bomber fleets, and the United States Navy’s submarine fleet in a structure know as the Nuclear Triad.”
 * Of the three segments of the triad only the sub fleets an active role in the strategic aspects of the deterrence policy.
 * MAD “No one side could do more damage than their opponent could retaliate”.

C) Evaluation of Sources Leavitt-Alcantara, Brianna. “Boomers, Hunters, and Spies: American Submarine Espionage in Cold War Military Policy.” 7 Dec. 2009. Essay. Origin is a history paper written by Professor Leavitt-Alcantara.  Purpose of this source is to give information about policies and how submarines helped with nuclear deterrence.  Value this paper is a value to me because it gave me information on how subs played a role in nuclear deterrence. Also how they used missions to get information to help the United States know what the Soviets where doing at all times.  Limitations of this paper are it dose not go in depth of the missions.  Sontag, Sherry, and Christorphere Drew. //Blind Man’s Bluff The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage//. New York: Harper, 1999. Print  Origin this is a non-fiction book wrote by Sherry Sontag and Christophere Drew.  Purpose of this book is to tell people about cold war submarines and their missions. Value of this book to me is that it shows missions that the subs would complete. It also showed some switch aerations in which the idea of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). Limitations it doses not talk much about nuclear deterrence policy.

D) Analysis During the cold war what kept the piece was a machine that was not seen or herd unless at dock and that is the Submarine. The submarine helped keep the piece between the Soviets and the United Stats by doing missions to show navel bases and positions off soviet subs.  The mission of diesel and nuclear powered sub in the cold war was tracking, cable taping, and surveillance of soviet coastline. Another thing subs could do was tap soviet cables this was very helpful “ Problems of soviet submariners, information that might make them easier to trail, tactical plans for patrols that would take those submariners and their missiles near U.S. shores. They could even get soviets own assessment on ICBM’s. The cable might provide entry into the minds of soviet commanders.” they could listen to soviet communication and see what they were doing and be a step ahead so cable taping became very important to stay a step ahead and helps with MAD. These missions on surveillance of soviets cost was very important in maintain piece because they help the U.S track soviet mobilization an example of that is a sub called Gudgeon mission was to spy on a navel base. Which went wrong and brings me to my next point. Another thing submarines did that helped keep the piece was the idea of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), which is the idea of that “No one side could do more damage than their opponent could retaliate”. So neither side wanted to do anything. Its proven in the book Blind Man’s Bluff when a bunch of soviet ships caught a U.S sub and kept dropping depth charges by it and never sank they just let it go “They were safely away, and for the first time the men admitted to one another that they had never been certain they would escape. The Soviets had obviously been capable of sinking the sub. They just didn’t want to. Or maybe, they did but weren’t allowed.” This shows that the soviets knew sinking that sub would cause a lot of problem so they did not. Another thing submarines played a role in was nuclear deterrence “Responsibility for the American nuclear deterrence arsenal would be distributed among land based inter-continental ballistic missile, intercontinental bomber fleets, and the United States Navy’s submarine fleet in a structure know as the Nuclear Triad.” This was big in keeping the piece because even if the soviets could take out all of the bombers and ICBM’S the subs were under the ocean ready to strike. Of the three segments of the triad, only the submarine fleet would play an active role in nuclear deterrence “ These boats were designed to disappear into the ocean and wait, undetected, until a first-strike nuclear attack occurred and they were activated to retaliate.” This quotes show that no matter what the soviets did we where ready to retaliate and so where they and that is how MAD and nuclear deterrence works.

E) Conclusion There are many things that helped keep the piece between the United States and the Soviet Union but from looking into it I believe that submarines did play one of the biggest role in keeping the piece by missions that showed where soviet subs where to taping cable it also helped by being a nuclear deterrent in which they could be any where in the world and fire a missile if necessary. So yes submarines played a big role in keeping the piece.

Sontag, Sherry. “Whiskey A-Go-Go.” //Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of America Submarine Espionage//. New York: Harper, 1998. 27-49. Print.

Origin: The authors are Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew.There qualifcation are Sherry was the writer for national law journal,while Christopher cover military contracts show she nows about war stuff.

Purpose :To show untold stories of american submarine espionage.

Value : This helps me anwser my queastion of how did subs keep cold war neturality, because it tell stories in this chapter about spy subs getting info about soviet russia so they can keep peace.

Limitaions : What I need to learn that was not in this section is some of the equement used to spy on other countries.