SC Talk: “Gazing into the Abyss: Naval Intelligence Failure in the Early Cold War”
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March 2, 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
SC Talk: Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at 2:00 – 4:00pm – Hybrid event: Zoom and The Faculty Club
Speaker: Nicholas Gunz, Naval and Intelligence Historian
Introducer: Daphne Maurer
Zoom Host: Michael Hutcheon
Title: “Gazing into the Abyss: Naval Intelligence Failure in the Early Cold War”
Abstract: It was, arguably, the most dangerous moment in human history. In 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US Navy almost caused World War Three by dropping live explosives on the nuclear-armed Soviet submarine B-59. Why did they do it? Bad, very bad, intelligence. In 2002, when the ‘B-59 Incident’ became public knowledge, ‘intelligence failure’ was becoming a perennial, mainstream, political concern. From WMD’s in Iraq to trucks in Ottawa, debates have been framed around questions that boil down to something like, “what did the intelligence services know, and when did they know it?”
This talk will describe a long-term project to ‘reconstitute’ (i.e., model the structure of) a major portion of the US intelligence infrastructure that almost blew up the world in October 1962. In doing so, we find that the B-59 Incident was not a singular failure, but a product of heretofore unrecognised structures that exist in almost every mature intelligence analysis system. By understanding these structures, we can better explain many historical intelligence failures (including, potentially, the Ottawa protest fiasco).
Bio: Nick Gunz is a naval and intelligence historian. He teaches part time at the U of T’s School of Continuing Studies.
The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/BhzKwJJFEY
The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.
The speaker will be participating via Zoom. This will be a hybrid event. You may choose to eat lunch at the Faculty Club with other Fellows, then watch the Zoom link from there, or to register for Zoom only. The deadline to register is 3 PM on the preceding Monday.
Everyone who enters the Faculty Club must provide proof of full vaccination and identification to verify. Once in the building, please wear a mask until seated but you may remove it when eating or drinking. The mask must be put on if moving about the building. If you have questions about coming to the Faculty Club, contact Daphne Maurer, daphne@maurer.ca.
If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact the organizer Linda Hutcheon at l.hutcheon@utoronto.ca.