Description
Winner, 2024 Book Award, Society for History in the Federal Government
In 1974, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, ostensibly an advanced deep-sea mining vessel owned by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, lowered a claw-like contraption to the floor of the Pacific Ocean. This high-tech venture was only a cover story for an even more improbable scheme: a CIA mission to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine. Like a Jules Verne novel with an Ian Fleming twist, the saga of the Glomar Explorer features underwater espionage, impossible gadgetry, and high-stakes international drama. It also marks a key moment in the history of transparency-and not just for what became known as the Glomar response: "We can neither confirm nor deny. . . . "
M. Todd Bennett plumbs the depths of government secrecy in this new account of the Glomar mission and its consequences. Trawling through recently declassified documents, he explores the logistics, media fallout, and geopolitical significance of one of the most ambitious operations in intelligence history. Glomar, Bennett argues, played a pivotal but underappreciated role in helping the CIA ward off oversight amid a push for transparency and accountability. He reframes the operation's history to offer an alternative perspective on the 1970s, a decade known for expansive openness, as well as the persistent tension between the demands of democracy and the need for secrecy in foreign policy. Combining keen historical analysis and gripping storytelling, Neither Confirm nor Deny brings to the surface fresh insights into the history of the security state, the politics of intelligence, and the CIA's relationship with the media and the public.
About the Author
M. Todd Bennett is associate professor of history at East Carolina University. He is the author of One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II (2012). Bennett was formerly a historian at the U.S. Department of State; there, he edited the Foreign Relations of the United States volume that includes declassified records documenting the Glomar incident.
Reviews
Bennett explores timely questions about the balance between secrecy and transparency and the role of the press in both...[his]comprehensive research makes this book as engaging as any espionage novel. An essential read. * Library Journal, starred review *
This is intelligence history as it should be written: packed with new archival findings and thrillingly narrated yet also deeply engaged with the latest scholarship in the wider fields of U.S. history and America in the world. A must-read for academic historians and espionage buffs alike. -- Hugh Wilford, author of The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
Bennett shows why the story of the Glomar Explorer is not only filled with exciting characters and twists, it's also a key moment in the history of the U.S. government's refusal to disclose information to the voters. -- Kathryn Olmsted, author of The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler
Neither Confirm nor Deny is an extraordinary account of one of the most important moments in the history of the CIA, the Glomar Explorer Mission. Likely to become a classic in the field of the history of intelligence, Neither Confirm nor Deny vividly underlines the continuing tensions that exist between democratic transparency and the American national security state. -- Thomas A. Schwartz, author of Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography
From the murky depths of the 1970s, this riveting book surfaces not only a Soviet sub and its CIA salvagers but also a new reckoning with an era known for investigative transparency. Glomar's legacy instead was to anchor the media, politicians, and all Americans to a barnacled ship of state secrecy. -- Katherine A. S. Sibley, coeditor of Post-Cold War Revelations and the American Communist Party
A noteworthy achievement and serves as a valuable contribution to the literature, placing the Glomar mission within its necessary context. It serves as an effective entry to the ongoing efforts to fill in the missing dimension of intelligence to diplomatic history. * Diplomatic History *
Awards
Winner of Book Award, Society for History in the Federal Government 2024.
Book Information
ISBN 9780231193474
Author M. Todd Bennett
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
In 1974, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, ostensibly an advanced deep-sea mining vessel owned by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, lowered a claw-like contraption to the floor of the Pacific Ocean. This high-tech venture was only a cover story for an even more improbable scheme: a CIA mission to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine. Like a Jules Verne novel with an Ian Fleming twist, the saga of the Glomar Explorer features underwater espionage, impossible gadgetry, and high-stakes international drama. It also marks a key moment in the history of transparency-and not just for what became known as the Glomar response: "We can neither confirm nor deny. . . . "
M. Todd Bennett plumbs the depths of government secrecy in this new account of the Glomar mission and its consequences. Trawling through recently declassified documents, he explores the logistics, media fallout, and geopolitical significance of one of the most ambitious operations in intelligence history. Glomar, Bennett argues, played a pivotal but underappreciated role in helping the CIA ward off oversight amid a push for transparency and accountability. He reframes the operation's history to offer an alternative perspective on the 1970s, a decade known for expansive openness, as well as the persistent tension between the demands of democracy and the need for secrecy in foreign policy. Combining keen historical analysis and gripping storytelling, Neither Confirm nor Deny brings to the surface fresh insights into the history of the security state, the politics of intelligence, and the CIA's relationship with the media and the public.
About the Author
M. Todd Bennett is associate professor of history at East Carolina University. He is the author of One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II (2012). Bennett was formerly a historian at the U.S. Department of State; there, he edited the Foreign Relations of the United States volume that includes declassified records documenting the Glomar incident.
Reviews
Bennett explores timely questions about the balance between secrecy and transparency and the role of the press in both...[his]comprehensive research makes this book as engaging as any espionage novel. An essential read. * Library Journal, starred review *
This is intelligence history as it should be written: packed with new archival findings and thrillingly narrated yet also deeply engaged with the latest scholarship in the wider fields of U.S. history and America in the world. A must-read for academic historians and espionage buffs alike. -- Hugh Wilford, author of The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
Bennett shows why the story of the Glomar Explorer is not only filled with exciting characters and twists, it's also a key moment in the history of the U.S. government's refusal to disclose information to the voters. -- Kathryn Olmsted, author of The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler
Neither Confirm nor Deny is an extraordinary account of one of the most important moments in the history of the CIA, the Glomar Explorer Mission. Likely to become a classic in the field of the history of intelligence, Neither Confirm nor Deny vividly underlines the continuing tensions that exist between democratic transparency and the American national security state. -- Thomas A. Schwartz, author of Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography
From the murky depths of the 1970s, this riveting book surfaces not only a Soviet sub and its CIA salvagers but also a new reckoning with an era known for investigative transparency. Glomar's legacy instead was to anchor the media, politicians, and all Americans to a barnacled ship of state secrecy. -- Katherine A. S. Sibley, coeditor of Post-Cold War Revelations and the American Communist Party
A noteworthy achievement and serves as a valuable contribution to the literature, placing the Glomar mission within its necessary context. It serves as an effective entry to the ongoing efforts to fill in the missing dimension of intelligence to diplomatic history. * Diplomatic History *
Awards
Winner of Book Award, Society for History in the Federal Government 2024.
Book Information
ISBN 9780231193474
Author M. Todd Bennett
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
