OFFICER WROTE NOVEL CRITICAL OF PENTAGON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00446R000100200008-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: July 2, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON M, TM
Approved For Release 2010/05/10: CIA-RDP67B00446R000100200008-1
tffker 'Wrote.
Novel Critical
,Of Pentagon
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii
(AP)-A U.S. Navy officer to-
, day disclosed that he assumed
a Russian name to write a book
highly critical of some Pentagon
and Navy thinking, and nursed
his secret for two years.
Cmdr. John A. Davis Jr., 43, a
graduate of the U.S. Naval
Academy, confiri'ned in an inter.
view that he wrote the fictional;'
= work entitled "Shadow of
Peril." Today was his last
day in the Navy, following his*
voluntary retirement.
Davis plans to become a sub
marine warfare consultant with'
President Johnson's Office of Pub1#sher Knew F7anie ~nation'alIy or "iu the United
Science and Technology. ' A Doubleday spokesman said States or Communist world.
He also says he'll be an assist-.'the publisher new the author's From this launching pad of fact,
.ant to the president of Grace true identity but that he forbade however, 'Shadow of Peril' taken
Lines Steamship Co. his name to be used, off into the unlimited space of
The pen name he. used was "Evidently," the spokesman fiction.
Aleksandr I. Zhdanov, who Is added, "he thought he'd get,in "The cold war patrols of the,'
described as a Soviet submarine trouble with somebody In the (submarine) W7 and F689 are
captain. Navy, Now that he's out, we're doubtless products of the au
liushup Alleged free to say' we `knew if-w" as thor's imagination. Whether
d him." they could happen or have hap,
Th
k
it
b
U
e
oo
accuses some
n
e
States admirals of hushing up A publisher's note in front of pened Is left entirely to the
,
'
i
i
d
ti
"
er
s own
mag
na
on.
reports of U.S. weaknesses at the book describes it as "a novel lea
sea in order to get more airpow- of the deadly underseas,strug- '.Archaic Thinking Charged
er, and takes a few swings at gle between the Soviet Union To needle Navy admirals sup-
;some Pentagon policies on anti- and the United States." The porting carrier construction, the
submarine warfare, book, It says, was "based on novel's fictitious Soviet naval,
Written while Davis was serv- fact." leaders say U.S. admirals were
ing as a submarine and antisub- It addds: "A pseudonym has guilty of archaic thinking.
marine adviser to the chief of been used to veil the authorship It says a Soviet sub pene-
naval operations in the Penta- of this story which has been trated deep into New York liar
gon in 1962, the book also written as if indeed it were the bor at one time and could have
needles admirals supporting account of a 'defected Russian blown Astronaut John Glenn out
showcase aircraft carrier pro- submarine officer," of the water after his Atlantic
.grams. The note continues: "Some of landing.
The main theme of the story the'. incidents in the Zhdanow; Its main theme was that So-
told through the eyes of a story are known to have taken?i viet submarines could easily
Soviet submarine skipper - place." penetrate U.S. defenses and
contends Soviet submarines can One such Incident, It says, was I :penetrate United States naval
easily penetrate U.S. defenses the gunshot wounding of a'U.S.I'forces. It also argued that the
and threaten United States na- sailor while on a ship in the har- I! Soviets were ahead of the Unit-
''al forces. bor at Beirut, Lebanon, The ed States in oceanographic
Until his retirement today, at book, written In diary form, studies.
which he received a letter of explains that the author was on The novel
s
id the Soviets
.
a
commendation from Adm. Roy a Russian submarine in the area usually manage to slip spies and
L. Johnson, commander in chief and this is where the shot came other agents ashore whenevef
U.S. Pacific Fleet, Davis was a from. hydrographic ships ' dock at
training officer at Pearl Harbor - The 'publisher's note says: American ports.
for submarine skippers. "Many of the persons named in
fin
b
bli
k
h
d
b
e
oo
was ppu
s
e
,
y j the book are well known either.
Doubleday. & Co. in 1963 '
25 YEAR RE-REVIEW
Approved For Release 2010/05/10: CIA-RDP67B00446R000100200008-1