Cold War Berlin and Signals Intelligence

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Welcome to Episode 2 of Cold War Conversations where we start with a fascinating eyewitness account of Berlin during the Cold War.

Michael K Ferris  lived in Berlin as a child of US Airforce personnel in the 1960s and 70s and then subsequently joined the US Airforce himself and worked in Signals Intelligence during the 1980s.

In a wide ranging chat, we talked about life for American families and their kids in Berlin during the Cold War and also about the challenges of signals intelligence in the heart of East Germany at tail end of the Cold War. We also talked about the Stasi spy in Michael’s unit, Kennedy’s visit to Berlin, Baader Meinhof attacks on US Forces, Soxmis and much more.

Our guest’s unit was described by the Commander in Chief US Airforce Europe as “his eyes and ears to the East.”

We welcome Michael K Ferris

Links to videos we talked about:

Counterpoint TV Series set at Templehof Airfield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__PftXbeNWI

Documentary on Stasi Spy Jeffrey Carney

https://www.facebook.com/kevin.s.sweeney/videos/10208878757341371/

Video of the remains of Marienfelde Monitoring Post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=818IBwSsM5Y

The Same Sky – TV Series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtGSu-DJtPU

Berlin Enclaves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bqtY2PtEyU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8zZ6kx2EbE

The Legend of Rita (fictional drama film of Baader Meinhof terrorist crossing to the GDR)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkNk6Uzuedo

Reagan at Checkpoint Charlie 1982

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr-4QaBabDw

Berlin Historical Maps

http://histomapberlin.de/histomap/en/index.html

Game Set and Match

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3cDtZ4zSsw

Music

Talking Heads

https://youtu.be/JccW-mLdNe0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVHNwBbkSj4

Books

Amazon UK  – Looking Down the Corridors: Allied Aerial Espionage over East Germany and Berlin, 1945-1990

Amazon US

https://amzn.to/2IjtF1N

(small affiliate fee from these book links helps pay for Podcast hosting charges)

Facebook discussion group-

Facebook Group

Twitter

https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod