Who Can Hold the Sea
The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A close-up, action-filled narrative about the crucial role the U.S. Navy played in the early years of the Cold War, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fleet at Flood Tide
“A lucid, fast-moving and fitting finale to [Hornfischer’s] career.”—The Wall Street Journal
This landmark account of the U.S. Navy in the Cold War, Who Can Hold the Sea combines narrative history with scenes of stirring adventure on—and under—the high seas. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the victorious Navy sends its sailors home and decommissions most of its warships. But this peaceful interlude is short-lived, as Stalin, America’s former ally, makes aggressive moves in Europe and the Far East. Winston Churchill crystallizes the growing Communist threat by declaring the existence of “the Iron Curtain,” and the Truman Doctrine is set up to contain Communism by establishing U.S. military bases throughout the world.
Set against this background of increasing Cold War hostility, Who Can Hold the Sea paints the dramatic rise of the Navy’s crucial postwar role in a series of exciting episodes that include the controversial tests of the A-bombs that were dropped on warships at Bikini Island; the invention of sonar and the developing science of undersea warfare; the Navy’s leading part in key battles of the Korean War; the dramatic sinking of the submarine USS Cochino in the Norwegian Sea; the invention of the nuclear submarine and the dangerous, first-ever cruise of the USS Nautilus under the North Pole; and the growth of the modern Navy with technological breakthroughs such as massive aircraft carriers, and cruisers fitted with surface-to-air missiles.
As in all of Hornfischer’s works, the events unfold in riveting detail. The story of the Cold War at sea is ultimately the story of America’s victorious contest to protect the free world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This excellent naval history elucidates how the atomic bomb and nuclear power shaped the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Historian and literary agent Hornfischer (The Fleet at Flood Tide), who died in 2021, unearths fascinating anecdotes, noting, for instance, that the first test of atomic bombs against warships involved 200 pigs, some of whom "wore standard U.S. Navy antiflash suits and were smeared with antiflash lotion." He also draws enlightening character sketches of key players including diplomat George F. Kennan, whose "Long Telegram" from Moscow in 1946 gave rise to America's containment policy against the Soviet Union; and Adm. Hyman Rickover, who developed a reliable nuclear reactor that would fit in a normal ship's engine room; and Adm. Arleigh Burke, who decided in 1956 that all new submarines would be nuclear propelled. Recounting the blockade of North Korea's ports during the Korean War, the development of the Polaris and Sidewinder missiles, the Suez Crisis, and the nuclear submarine Nautilus's transit underneath the North Pole, among other events, Hornfischer enlivens the proceedings with sharp analysis and lucid prose. This impressively researched and thoroughly accessible account fires on all cylinders.
