From Opposite Sides of the Periscope

<p>With a war raging in Indochina and a Cold War raging in secret the spring of 1972 was a perilous time.</p><p>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.<br />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<em> USS Guardfish</em> (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.</p><p>Follow two young commanders who led different lives but had surprisingly similar careers until they converged in the waters off of Vladivostok.</p>