Peter A. Huchthausen – författare

Drama on the high seas as the world holds its breath

It was the most spectacular display of brinkmanship in the Cold War era. In October 1962, President Kennedy risked inciting a nuclear war to prevent the Soviet Union from establishing missile bases in Cuba. The risk, however, was far greater than Kennedy realized.

October Fury uncovers startling new information about the Cuban missile crisis and the potentially calamitous confrontation between US Navy destroyers and Soviet submarines in the Atlantic. Peter Huchthausen, who served as a junior ensign aboard one of the destroyers, reveals that a single shot fired by any US warship could have led to an immediate nuclear response from the Soviet submarines.

This riveting account re-creates those desperate days of confrontation from both the American and Russian points of view and discloses detailed information about Soviet operational plans and the secret orders given to submarine commanders. It provides an engrossing, behind-the-scenes look at the technical and tactical functions of two great navies along with stunning portraits of the officers and sailors on both sides who were determined to do their duty even in the most extreme circumstances.

As absorbing and detailed as a Tom Clancy novel, this real-life suspense thriller is destined to become a classic of naval literature.

In 1967, Peter Huchthausen, a river patrol officer on Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta, rescued a badly wounded Vietnamese child, Nguyen Thi Lung. He arranged for the girl’s treatment and education, only to lose track of her when her town was overrun by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive.

After the war, Lung led a difficult and shadowy life under the communist regime, until she managed to get the attention of a reporter. The reporter published her story and then assisted her departure from Vietnam, while Huchthausen sponsored her entry into the United States.

In alternating chapters, Huchthausen and Lung recall the experience of war on the Mekong River, and Lung relates the terrifying years that followed. Echoes of the Mekong casts a fresh light on the American involvement in Vietnam as it follows two people caught in the war from youth to maturity.

"A new light is shed on the spy ships incidents of the 1960s and on submarine intrusions in Swedish waters. Excerpts of the Soviet Navy instructions on UFOs and accounts of Soviet naval encounters with unexplained objects are also published for the first time outside of Russia; and much more."