
God & Spies
Recently Declassified Top Secret Operation
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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GM Matheny
About this listen
Author G. M. Matheny was a US Navy saturation diver on the nuclear submarine USS Halibut involved in Operation Ivy Bells, America's most important (and most dangerous of the Cold War) clandestine operations. If you like good old-fashioned American bravado, espionage, and American history, you will enjoy this book.
God & Spies is a firsthand account of America's greatest intelligence coup.
Operation Ivy Bells was not a onetime intercept of foreign intelligence but an ongoing operation of multiple Soviet military channels! Another reason for the high interest in our operation was the audacious nature in which it was done - with not one person risking his neck but the crews of two US Navy nuclear submarines which rendezvoused in Soviet territorial waters.
"How did I end up as a navy diver, 400 feet down in a frigid Russian sea? After making my dad totally disgusted with me, I set out to make him happy. 'Honor thy father' - I struggled with a decision to serve God. 'Lord, I will give my life to you and serve you if you let me make this dive.' But I had the impression He only wanted to know one thing: 'What if I do not let you? Will you serve me anyway?'"
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Ivy Bells
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So grateful!
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Also, it was very annoying hearing all the citations, specifying the CIA releases. Listening to all of those dates and numbers being read off made me want to stop listening to the book. Could we not just put those into an appendix?
Good story
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I appreciate the author’s attention to detail.
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Interesting Insight in to Operation Ivy Bells
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All in all a nice story about Cold War sigint that we don’t read or hear of very often. I was well aware of operation Ivy Bells, but having an in depth view of a main protagonist was a nice addition to this fascinating story.
To be held to the same standard of spying audacity as Project Azorian even if not at the same scale of course.
4 stars through and through.
Incomparable "dive" into one of the most harrowing and riveting intelligence coup of the Cold War
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interesting story, less well written
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