The Code Battle

The Code BattleOn June 20, 1974, a slow, unwieldy vessel filigreed with struts and derricks lumbered out to sea on a top-secret mission. She was the Glomar Explorer. Her secret task was to raise from the depths of the Pacific Ocean a Russian submarine that had sunk. The U.S. Government wanted to obtain the submarine's missile warheads and her codes. For this, it was willing to spend $350,000,000 of the taxpayers' money--an amount equivalent to giving 3,000,000 more people Medicare coverage, send...