Red Star Rogue

By: Kenneth Sewell, Clint Richmond

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

One of the great secrets of the Cold War, hidden for decades, is revealed at last.

Early in 1968, a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine sank in the waters off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Compelling evidence strongly suggests that the sub sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile.

We now know that the Soviets had lost track of the sub; it had become a rogue. The Nixon administration launched a clandestine, half-billion-dollar project to recover the sunken K-129. The successful recovery effort helped forge new relations between the U.S. and the Soviets, even as it revealed a treacherous plan to provoke war between the U.S. and China, a plan that, had it succeeded, would have had devastating consequences.

©2005 Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Not convinced

It seems to me that the authors struggle to understand the Soviet mindset and have disregarded the fact that the Russians were the best at playing the espionage and deceipt game. The authors take things said and done at face value, not seeing that these were often Soviet leadership tactics to hide their true intentions (or sometimes their confusion). In the last part of the book, it seems that every political decision from 1972 onward was because of that incident and the authors cite the contents of classified meetings as though they were there. They have no evidence to support their outlandish claims and I soon grew tired of their babbling speculation.

Awesome story, credible conclusion

In the tradition of Tom Clancy, a great spy story is pitched. Whether it is true or not may never be known, but the theory fits the available facts. In my experience, the story rings true, and presented some additional new information on a key event of the cold war. Red Star Rogue is a compelling read.

Detailed

The book is detailed and explains evidence for a conjecture regarding a rogue sub crew. I enjoyed listening to the new information that I had not heard before. Also, I have taken a liking to Mr. Emerson’s narration style.

Word in Cuba.

The word in Cuba, after the misil crisis, was that Castro was really mad because he never have control of the missiles. He really wants to push that button.

Interesting and Compelling Argument

The story is very interesting. The difficult issue is actually in the reader, Brian Emerson. Unfortunately, Mr. Emerson keeps adding emphasis at odd places almost as if he is not paying attention to the story. His pronunciation of some place names is also off, at least to my ear. Sadly, Mr. Emerson created an unnecessary distraction to this story.