Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wizards
BOOK REVIEW: Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wizards: America’s Scottish Bastion in the Cold War
By David Mackay/ Whittles Publishing
Reviewed by: Doug Wise
The Reviewer — Douglas H. Wise served as Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from August 2014 until August 2016. Following 20 years of active duty in the Army where he served as an infantry and special operations officer, he spent the remainder of his career at CIA.
REVIEW — In the early fifties, when the Soviet Union demonstrated its nuclear prowess and launched the first satellite into space, the world sat on a knife edge of fear from the real likelihood of a possible nuclear exchange. The West needed intelligence access and a military bastion — Scotland answered the call.
Many subscribers of The Cipher Brief are veterans of the Cold War in some national security capacity. More than a modest number will consider themselves familiar with the history having contributed to making it over the lifetime of their careers. Others will place themselves in the status of having detailed knowledge of the history of this extended conflict. These latter distinguished colleagues, I must advise, are wrong; they only know a portion of the historical record.
The recently published book, Bubbleheads, Seals, and Wizards, by Scottish historian David Mackay opens the door to a fascinating and little-known chronicle of Scotland’s critical military and intelligence roles in allied efforts during the Cold War. It is an entertaining and enlightening story of planes, Holy Loch-based submarines, submariners (“bubbleheads”), ships, signals intelligence, secret balloons, and Russian spies.
Mackay, a former special forces officer and veteran of the British Parachute Regiment, leaves no stone unturned in his fast-paced and extremely interesting narrative on how Scotland and the Scottish people helped to win the Cold War. Every page pulls back the curtain, offering surprising revelations of Scottish war-winning contributions both big and those small.
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Mackay’s book also showcases the courage of a nation and its people both of whom accepted significant risk to provide a military and intelligence platform motivated by an ethos of “world peace is our goal.”
The story of Scotland’s role during the stressful days of the Cold War was given license by Mackay’s passion, research, and attention to detail. What makes this book come alive for the reader and puts them in the story, is Mackay’s extensive use of first-person interviews of those who made this bit of Cold War history.
Mackay recognized this was a personal story and the reader needed to be present in the moment to have a sense of the personal feelings and emotions of the participants. It is this conceit which gives power to the book.
This is not a book about grand strategy and grand strategists, but instead is about grand soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and intelligence operators, and most importantly about the common citizens of Scotland. Through Mackay’s voice, and their own words, we get to meet these people – unsung cold warriors of all stripes.
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As mentioned above, Scotland’s answer was not without risk and if the Cold War had turned hot, Scotland would have had a well-earned place on the Soviet nuclear target deck. Mackay acknowledges early in his book that this Scottish role was not sought by Scotland but pursued by the U.S because of its geopolitical location which gave the West an opportunity to push strategic capability forward and the chance to more effectively monitor Soviet strategic military moves.
Scotland’s critical role was not lost on the Soviet Union and its spymasters who devoted substantial resources, time and attention to intelligence collection on the Scottish target. The purpose of the investment was to provide Soviet leaders an intelligence perspective on the daily activities of U.S. submarines and U.S. aircraft operating out of Scotland and details of the expanding U.S. signals intelligence infrastructure hosted on Scottish soil.
Not surprisingly, the scale and pace of Soviet intelligence operations in Scotland generated substantial behind the scenes spy versus spy operations. Mackay gives us a front row seat on this intelligence and counterintelligence drama and similar to the rest of the book, at a very personal level.
Even if the reader is not interested in the overall strategic significance of the U.S. military and intelligence presence in Scotland, they will be inspired and entertained by the challenges faced, challenges overcome, laughs, loves, and personal sacrifices of Scottish and American Cold Warriors. You can read this book from the first page to the last or dive randomly into any of its 216 pages. Either way, you will enjoy this well-written and well-sourced behind-the-scenes look at one of the most important chapters in the history of the Cold War.
This is the perfect book for every Cold War enthusiast and should enjoy a prominent place on their bookshelves.
Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wizards earns a prestigious 4 out of 4 trench coats
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