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The Declassified Files Project Azorian
The CIA’s Secret Mission to Recover a Soviet SubmarineBy Michael Harrington
Length1h 37m
About this audiobook
A lost Soviet submarine. A secret CIA operation. An engineering mission the world was never meant to discover.
In March 1968, the Soviet submarine K-129 disappeared in the Pacific Ocean, carrying nuclear-armed ballistic missiles and sensitive military technology. The Soviet Navy searched for its missing vessel. The Americans found it.
What began as an intelligence opportunity became one of the most extraordinary covert operations in American history.
The CIA devised an astonishing plan: construct a specialized recovery ship, disguise the entire operation as a commercial ocean-mining project, and secretly lift a Soviet submarine from nearly 16,500 feet beneath the Pacific.
The result was Project Azorian, a classified undertaking involving billionaire Howard Hughes, the purpose-built Hughes Glomar Explorer, groundbreaking deep-ocean technology, and an elaborate campaign of deception.
In The Declassified Files: PROJECT AZORIAN, Michael Harrington reconstructs the operation through its Cold War origins, technical challenges, extraordinary execution, and controversial aftermath.
Discover:
Why the CIA became determined to recover the Soviet submarine K-129.
How Howard Hughes became the public face of an operation he did not openly explain.
The extraordinary engineering behind the Hughes Glomar Explorer.
What happened during the secret recovery attempt in the Pacific.
Why the operation's true intelligence value remains debated.
How Project Azorian helped give rise to the famous Glomar response in government secrecy.Drawing on the declassified historical record, this compelling account separates documented facts from enduring speculation, revealing a story in which intelligence ambition, technological innovation, and Cold War secrecy converged.
The mission was classified. The engineering was unprecedented. The full story is still more complicated than the legend.
For readers fascinated by CIA history, Cold War espionage, declassified intelligence operations, Soviet submarines, and the hidden history of American intelligence.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Psychology
Length1 hr 37 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 9, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Prologue: The Impossible Mission
2Part I: The Lost Submarine
3Chapter 1: The Last Patrol
4Chapter 2: The Hunt for K-129
5Part II: The Secret Plan
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 3: The Prize Beneath the Pacific
7Chapter 4: The Howard Hughes Cover
8Chapter 5: Building the Impossible Ship
9Part III: The Operation
10Chapter 6: Five Kilometers Down
11Chapter 7: The Lift
12Chapter 8: The Breaking Point
13Part IV: The Secrets Revealed
14Chapter 9: The Story Breaks
15Chapter 10: Success, Failure, and the Glomar Legacy
16Epilogue: What the Ocean Kept
17Sources and Further Reading
Series
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