A close-up, action-filled narrative about the crucial role the U.s. Navy played in the early years of the Cold War, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fleet at Flood Tide A lucid, fast-moving and fitting finale to [Hornfischer's] career. The Wall Street Journal This landmark account of the U.s. Navy in the Cold War, Who Can Hold the Sea combines narrative history with scenes of stirring adventure on and under the high seas. In 1945, at the end of World War Ii, the victorious Navy sends its sailors home and decommissions most of its warships. But this peaceful interlude is short-lived, as Stalin, America's former ally, makes aggressive moves in Europe and the Far East. Winston Churchill crystallizes the growing Communist threat by declaring the existence of the Iron Curtain, and the Truman Doctrine is set up to contain Communism by establishing U.s. military bases throughout the world. Set against this background of increasing Cold War hostility, Who Can Hold the Sea paints the dramatic rise of the Navy's crucial postwar role in a series of exciting episodes that include the controversial tests of the A-bombs that were dropped on warships at Bikini Island, the invention of sonar and the developing science of undersea warfare, the Navy's leading part in key battles of the Korean War, the dramatic sinking of the submarine Uss.