Operation Ivy Bells: A Cold War Espionage Masterstroke
View of USS Halibut departing San Francisco, likely in the mid 1970s. U.S. Navy photo. Operation Ivy Bells was a top-secret mission during the Cold War, jointly executed by the U.S. Navy, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Agency (NSA). The objective of this operation was to place wiretaps on Soviet underwater…