The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned

The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh

The Soviet Union built up its space program primarily by making crude copies of western technology. There focus was more on embarrassing the west than on technological innovation. They hid their failures while exaggerating their successes. They lacked some of the advanced technology, so they would over-engineer heavy machines. The program did send people to space and made celebrities out of initial cosmonauts. However, they never did get a man to the moon. After Khrushchev lost power, the USSR shifted resources away from the space race. This book is a very snarky take on the Soviet program, with an emphasis on the structural problems and ineptitude of the space program.

The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat

The Spy in Moscow Station: A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat by Eric Haseltine

The Russians and Americans were always trying to out-spy each other. The local embassies were a central point. This is both the "hub" of spying activity as well as a location in the land of the enemy. They each tried to spy as much as possible without getting caught. This book details some intricate tricks they used based on physics. Sound waves travel through the air and can be "caught" by antennas. Similarly radio waves can be used to send signals over various distances. Less known is the waves that are produced from physical activity. A computer may emit a small wave when turned on. Even the most minute signal can be picked up to some extent. Russia had been very keen on exploiting signals and various techniques are taught.

This book details the case of bugged embassy typewriters. The electronic typewriters had small transmitters in them which would encode and transmit the keystrokes made. They would transmit in a bandwidth typically used by local television to help evade detection. An antenna (which was eventually discovered by the Americans) was in the building to pick up these transmissions. The "spyware" was so carefully engineered that it evaded detection for years and only a persistent analyst was able to finally detect it. 

The engineering problem is only part of the story. The human factor was almost more of a challenge. Both sides were walking a diplomatic fine line. The Soviets knew they could often sew descent within the US to let various groups fight amongst themselves.  This continues to remain a challenge today. Russia can simply polarize Americans and let them fight each other.

Who?

 Who? by Algis Budrys

Lucas Martino is a key scientist for The Allied National Government. An explosion happens when his doing his work and the Soviet International Block helps restore his health before restoring him. Many parts of his body are artificial. The allies are unsure if he is the "real person" or a spy. He seems to check all the boxes, but the allies are not sure. Eventually, they decide to dismiss him from his work leaving him to live a different life. It turns out that though the Soviets thought to replace him as a spy, they didn't. However, they did succeed in setting back the scientific work while still letting the many live.

Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba played an interesting role in the cold war. Castro was not initially a communist. He was naive populist who was focussed on the will of the people. He hoped to bring the United States to his side. However, the "will of the people" involved some things that the US was not too fond of. This led to a general shunning of Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a disastrous attempt to install a new regime in Cuba without involving US forces. It only served to further alienate Cuba. Castro was driven to greater ties with the Soviet Union and communism. This now gave the Soviets an allie within spitting distance of the heavily populated east coast of the US. It was a perfect place to base nuclear missiles. 

Gambling with Armageddon details many of the chance actions that prevented all out nuclear war during the cold war. The book starts with the lead up to Hiroshima and ends with the calming of tensions at the end of the Cuban missile crisis. While there were many big players involved (Stallan, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Kruschev), it was often little regarded underlings that did the most to prevent nuclear destruction. Some were under orders to fire nukes, but decided against it. Other chance encounters also helped to reduce tensions.

America had initially hoped to use the nuclear weapons to become a super power. The Japanese bombings were in part a way to show that the bombs were real. They also served to end the war more quickly to prevent further Soviet territorial claims. There were some in the US that desired to share the technology with the Russians in order to calm relationships. They were overruled by those that sought to hold on to the advantage. Alas, the advantage was only short term. Soon the USSR had their own weapons. There were also US hawks that were clamoring to use nukes on many occasions. These were often overruled.

Intelligence gathering on both sides was also quite well done, with the other side often having details. (There were times when Russia knew about things before the US president did.) The Soviets thought they could sneak missiles into Cuba without the US knowing. But, alas, US intelligence did find out. Some factions were arguing for an all out attack. There were various requests from the Soviets, but eventually things did calm down.

It is interesting to read how close the world did come to war. The book is very thorough, with many layers of detail. It can get a little slow at times, but does a good job of expressing the many challenges of nuclear weapons and the luck that has saved us from their widespread use.

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

The story of Oleg Gordievsky is nearly too real to be believable. He was a KGB agent who decided he would share secrets with Britain. He provided an abundant source of information. However, the west was not able to fully disseminate or act on it for fear of implicating the source. Even the US CIA did not know who the source was (and did some undercover work themselves to try to find out.) When he was posted in London, the UK did some work to help him maintain his position and rise in the ranks. He was able to provide just enough apparently useful intelligence to the Soviet Union to maintain his value.

From his information, Britain was able to learn many of the challenges within the Soviet Union. Even the KGB was mired in its own bureaucracy. The Soviets had also come to the belief that the US was at the cusp of launching a nuclear attack. They would find all sorts of other meaningless actions that seemed to "back up" their supposition. Once Gordievsky was out of the KGB, the west was able to fully act on much of the intelligence provided. This was in the mid-80s, a half decade before the collapse of communism.

His escape from Russia was perhaps the most "unreal" part of the story. The KGB-brass had an inkling that he may be a spy and called him back to Russia. He managed to make it through the truth-serum interrogation, but knew he was likely a dead man. Through coded phone messages, an elaborate escape plan was set in motion that involved signaling using a safeway bag and mars bar. Then the getaway required breaking a multi-vehicle tail, hiding him with heat-resistant blankets in the back of a car, a baby's dirty diaper and making it through multiple checkpoints to get to Finland, then to Norway and finally to England. A young Putin was involved on the Russian side. The book credits Russian bureaucratic complacency as one factor that helped the plot to succeed.

Alas, his wife and kids were still in Russia. They were interrogated by the KGB and had a miserable life for a few years. However, after the fall of communism in the early 90s, they were able to be reunited again. Alas, by this time they had drifted apart. (They had known nothing of his spying or the escape plot and had remained loyal to the USSR.)  

Alas, Babylon

This reminded me a lot of One Second After. (Only this one was written a few decades earlier.) They both center around some southerners who have some survivalist mentality. A big event happens that rips away modern technology, and the people manage to create a society. They are the "good guys" who hole up in their semi-rural community, while the city dwellers resort to becoming savage marauders.

In Alas, Babylon, the catastrophe is a nuclear war. Russia uses submarines to launch nukes at most major US cities and military sites. The US managed to launch a retaliatory force that wiped out much of Russia. In the end, the US won, but in the process, life was severely disrupted for most everybody. Even "survivalists" who had been prepared, merely found themselves the greater targets. Humans may attack with guns, but dogs and other animals could also become dangers. Some people don't even get that far. They see the "meaning" of their life ripped apart by the changes, and manage to end it rather than try to adapt.

Makes you wonder if this is what happened to some ancient civilizations that were only encountered in later stages. Perhaps the Australian Aborigines or American Indians had a civilization much more advanced than us today, but managed to wipe most of it out before the Europeans came around. The "survivalists" that were left reverted to the primitive ways of life.