In early August 1974, despite incredible risks and after six years of secret preparations, the CIA attempted to salvage the sunken Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 from the depths of the North Pacific Ocean. The audacious effort was undertaken with the cover of an undersea mining operation sponsored by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes.

Examines the life, career, controversies, accomplishments, and blunders of the man in charge of the Navy's nuclear power program for over 30 years.

What would have happened if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Japan in August 1945? Distinguished military writer historians Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar answer that provocative question in Code-Name Downfall, a vivid and dramatic narrative of America's war in the Pacific, which would lead inevitably to massive amphibious assaults against the Japanese home islands. Based on newly declassified documents, personal interviews, and a decade of...