From Opposite Sides of the Periscope: The Trail Is On - Hardcover

by Capt David C. III Minton Usn (Author), Alfred S. Berzin Ussr (Author)

With a war raging in Indochina and a Cold War raging in secret, the spring of 1972 was a perilous time.

The question everyone wanted an answer to was whether the bombing and mining campaigns of the Hanoi and Haiphong harbors, announced by President Nixon on May 8, would cause the Soviet Union and the United States of America to collide.
During several weeks in 1972, one lone nuclear submarine prevented the tactical morass of the Vietnam War from turning the Cold War hot. The submarine, USS Guardfish (SSN612) commanded by Cmdr. David C. Minton III, secretly followed a Soviet nuclear guided missile submarine K 184 commanded by Capt. First Rank Alfred S. Berzin, from Vladivostok to the South China Sea, in the wake of the mining of the Haiphong and Hanoi harbors, providing real-time information on the Soviet submarine threat.

Follow two young commanders who led different lives but had surprisingly similar careers until they converged in the waters off of Vladivostok.

Author Biography

Capt. David C. Minton III USN (Ret.) was commanding officer of the USS Guardfish (SSN 612) in 1972 when the Soviet Navy sortied five nuclear missile submarines to the South China Sea in response to the United States mining of North Vietnamese ports. Minton trailed a Soviet nuclear guided missile submarine, K 184, for twenty-eight days and 6,100 nautical miles.
Years later he was able to contact the commanding officer of the Soviet submarine, Rear Adm. Alfred S. Berzin USSR (Ret.), and they were able to co-author this book.