ABSTRACT
The submarine silently slipped through the water. It moved slowly, searching for a cable on the bottom of the ocean floor. It was nearly an impossible task, especially hundreds of feet under the water in dark light and murky conditions. The submarine was USS Halibut and it was on a special mission called Ivy Bells. Its job was to locate an underwater Soviet communication cable and tap it. The cable was located in Soviet waters and if the Halibut was caught, the Soviets would blow up the submarine. This mission was the brainchild of Captain James F. Bradley, who believed that if the US could listen in on conversations between submarine bases and the Soviet leaders, it would learn invaluable secrets. The project was a huge success. The Soviets did not think anyone could tap their conversations from an underwater cable, so they rarely encrypted their messages. In 1985, it was discovered that John A. Walker had betrayed United States.
