This book reads like a Tom Clancy novel, but it is all true. Today our greatest fear is that terrorists may someday acquire a nuclear weapon and use it against us. In fact, they have already tried. In 1968 a Soviet submarine sank off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Evidence strongly suggests that the sub sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile, most likely at Pearl Harbor. We now know that the Soviets had lost track of the sub; it had become a rogue. While the Soviets searched, U.S. intelligence was able to recover the sunken sub, and it became clear that the rogue was attempting to mimic a Chinese submarine, almost certainly with the intention of provoking a war between the U.S. and China. Could the information gleaned from the sunken sub have been a decisive factor shaping the new policies of détente between the Americans and the Soviets, and opening China to the West?--From publisher description.

The incident -- The intelligence -- The cover-up.