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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVHNwBbkSj4
Books
Amazon US
(small affiliate fee from these book links helps pay for Podcast hosting charges)
Facebook discussion group-