Oceans Ventured
Winning the Cold War at Sea
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
“Engrossing and illuminating.” —Arthur Herman, Wall Street Journal
When Ronald Reagan took office in January 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and it had embarked on a massive program to gain naval preeminence. But Reagan already had a plan to end the Cold War without armed conflict. In this landmark narrative, former navy secretary John Lehman reveals the untold story of the naval operations that played a major role in winning the Cold War.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this incisive political and strategic analysis, Lehman, secretary of the Navy from 1981 to 1987, describes the "naval rearmament and maritime superiority" strategy that he argues decided the Cold War. By 1980, Lehman writes, the U.S.S.R. had mounted a comprehensive challenge to American naval supremacy a challenge unmet by Jimmy Carter's policy of substituting "soft power and diplomacy" for armed force. Incoming president Ronald Reagan, determined to counter the Soviet initiative, began a massive new exercise, Ocean Venture, involving forward operations in the Norwegian Sea and the Atlantic, to send a message of deterrence. The Soviet government perceived the exercise as a threat and responded with its own programs of modernization, maneuvers, and "surveillance and harassment." But economic difficulties rendered the Soviet Union unable to close the "significant" and "widening" technological and operational gaps with a revitalized U.S. Navy. After 1983, Lehmann asserts, America's maritime strategy spurred the Soviet Union into military overextension contributing to the regime's collapse without a shot fired. Lehman makes a difficult-to-ignore case for sea power's potential to "prevent having to go to war at all." This well-argued work will have significant appeal for those interested in national security issues.
