Eyewitness

Cold War Conversations on Cold War Conversations

And now for something completely different… today I’m chatting with listener Peter Ryan who will be turning the tables and questioning me about my Cold War story! Now, listeners, I can see you are enjoying the podcast by the increasing listener numbers so if you’d like the podcast to continue all I’m asking for a … Read more

Manuel – Experiences of the Cold War Reforger 82 NATO Exercise

  Manuel Alzaga returns to the podcast after his debut in episode 57 with his experiences as US Army 18-year-old assistant artillery gunner in West Germany. He tells of his first impressions of West Germany, details of the 1982 Reforger exercise(return of forces to Germany)  Exercise, as well as the life expectancy of front line soldier on the East … Read more

Working with high security clearance in the US Navy

Jay Lieberman talks about his early childhood memories of the Cold War as well as his long career in the US Navy. He tells a fascinating story of how he obtained high security clearance in the US Navy and served at a number of classified command facilities including the 2nd Pentagon and the Fleet Ocean … Read more

The Last Days of East Germany

Michael Paterson first visited East Germany just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and provides a vivid account of its subsequent decline and fall during the move to reunification with West Germany. Michael is a military historian, author, researcher and illustrator. He began his career on the military magazine ‘Battlefields Review’ as a writer … Read more

Tales of my Father

  Today has been a difficult day. My Dad has just died. He was a good father, a good man with many varied interests including art, photography and history. All of which he passed on to me. In particular, it was history, which has ultimately resulted in this podcast. I hope my listeners will indulge … Read more

Alexander – A Conscript in the Soviet Navy

  Alexander ‘Sasha’ Goncharov was born in Leningrad but early in this life moved to Ukraine.  After leaving school he was drafted into the Soviet Military and was based in Sevastopol where he worked in Naval Aviation servicing anti-ship weapons systems.  At the end of this period, Sasha decided to stay in the military to … Read more

Gillian – A US Student at the opening of the Berlin Wall

  Gillian Cox visited the GDR as a student in October 1989 just before the Wall came down. In this episode you will hear her eyewitness of account of what she saw ion that momentous night of 9th November 1989. Before we start the episode I wanted to thanks everyone who is supporting the podcast … Read more

Voices of the Berlin Wall 30th Anniversary

Our interview today is in a different format. Cold war Conversations is working with the Imperial War Museum on a project called Voices of the Wall. We will be capturing personal testimonies of people’s experiences of the Cold War which will later become part of the podcast. Therefore, this episode is a composite of previous … Read more

The opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989

    Cold War Conversations worked with the Imperial War Museum on a project called Voices of the Wall to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall. We captured new  personal testimonies of people’s experiences of the Cold War which later became part of the podcast. You can enjoy all the … Read more