Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover, and General Dynamics

by Patrick Tyler

Based on diaries, tape recordings, confidential documents, and exclusive interviews, this expose illustrates fundamental weaknesses in the defense industry by chronicling the scandalous dealings between the U.S. Navy and General Dynamics

Genres: Military History, History, Politics, Nonfiction, Technology, Military Fiction, Naval History

374 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

Reviews

[Brahm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super good "procurement history" - borrowing a term from another reviewer, this may sound boring but it's awesome, because it's all about big conflicting personalities, high-stakes contracts, backroom deals, and corruption - about US nuclear submarines in the 1970s-1980s and the defence contractor General Dynamics.

I learned about this book in the endnotes of Against the Tide: Rickover's Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy, which mostly evangelized Rickover's tough management style. This book exposed some of the nuances: Rickover was a supremely gifted propulsion engineer, but rammed designs through Congressional approvals that were inferior to Soviet designs.

Ordered from Thriftbooks which is like my new favourite bookstore. This book was published in 1986 and as far as I can tell the copy I received was brand-new, the spine was never cracked. For a book that's literally the same age as me I thought it held up well!

I was tempted to do 5 stars as I could barely put this book down, but it lost a bit of steam at the end, and some of the conversation scenes were hard to follow as they were simply transcribed from taped phone conversations. The nested conversations, e.g. people quoting each other while having a conversation, was tough to parse.

Recommended for fans of nuclear history, military history, engineering and project management, or white collar crime (if you enjoyed The Smartest Guys in the Room, Bad Blood, or The Big Short, this has the same investigative feel).

[Arya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit of a tough read. What confused me the most was the dozens of names mentioned every few pages. It was hard to visualize who the stakeholders were at any given time because the story wasn’t entirely chronological. I found it very interesting and I learned some cool things (the 688 class had a thinned hull and couldn’t dive as deep - this was to achieve speeds more comparable to the USSR). I might have to read this again in the future.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the specific events chronicled here are now ancient history in the view of most people, the tale of hubris, greed, and lust for power is just as pertinent today as ever. Anyone interested in how the government fails to live up to its ideals should read this, not for its specific details but for the human frailties that underlie those failures.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned this…not because it was bad (or good) but because I unintentionally left it in the plane’s pocket! What I did read of it was rather dry but the premise was still something I was interested in learning.

[Ran Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like procurement histories, so it shouldn't surprise anyone I liked this book. Tyler writes about events that are now 30-40 years ago, yet the politics, graft, and stupidity that plague US weapons acquisition are just the same as today. Rickover is a fascinating character, and the other two lead figures are Rey recognizable in other military industrial complex figures today. If you like Electric Boat, submarines, big money corruption, and the unpleasant process by which our republic turns large quantities of money into weapon systems, you will consider your time spent on this book very worth it.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit, I abandoned this one about 2/3 of the way through. This was mostly because it was delving into a level of politics that just wasn't relevant to my current project, and I didn't have enough personal interest to push through on that point. The story was far more interesting than I'd expected, and I enjoyed having Rickover fleshed out and placed in context, crazy unmanageable force that he was. There's some excellent detail on how the naval shipyards operated in the early days of the Cold War, and how personalities and politics drove the technology and strategies of the time.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good reading. A thorough, well researched and documented look at one example of how our system fails us. Although somewhat out of date since it focuses on a cold war subject, it would make a great text book for a course on human factors in management. It also presents a scary picture regarding the subjective factors that influence the design and construction of our principle deterrent weapons. It should be required reading for defensive weapon contractors and military personnel assigned to weapon design and construction billets.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the perspective of my profession and what I see every day with technical issues, etc - this book was thrilling and I've recommended it to all the engineers that I work with. Such an amazing insight into the design and procurement process for new classes of ships.

[Scott Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

During USS GEORGIA ERO in NNSY

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read and commentary on the Military Industrial Complex.