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

Tyler, a Washington Post reporter, has written a stunning account of the motivations, strategies and tactics in a multibillion-dollar defense procurement that ran aground. Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear navy, David Lewis, chairman of General Dynamics, and P. Takis Veliotis, general manager of the Electric Boat Division, were at the center of the industrial effort to catch up with Soviet advances in submarine deployment. Following a series of escalating crises, all three fell humiliatingly from graceRickover and Lewis forced into retirement and Veliotis into exile to escape criminal prosecution. The narrative revolves around tape-recordings Veliotis made of his phone conversations with Rickover and Lewis, conversations that began with tentative thrusts and parries and led to the open attacks and counterattacks that brought all three down. The book is an impressive journalistic achievement and a powerful indictment of the defense procurement system. 50,000 first printing; 60,000 ad/promo; author tour. (October 29