Spies

My father was a Stasi spy…

Werner Stiller’s spectacular defection to the West in 1979 inflicted one of the Cold War’s most serious blows to the Stasi. At the time he was working as a case officer for the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, the Stasi’s foreign intelligence division, where he was in charge of scientific espionage in the West. We speak … Read more

The KGB tried to recruit me

Hans de Vreij is a Dutch journalist who has worked in Berlin , Brussels, Geneva and Prague. Whilst working at the United Nations in Geneva Hans was the subject of attempted recruitment by the KGB to develop an ‘agent of influence’ to disseminate Soviet points of view. In addition, they analysed the ‘targeted journalist’ in … Read more

The Cold War Berlin spy tunnel – Operation Gold

Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British) was a joint operation conducted by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1950s to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. Steve Vogel is … Read more

Cuban Missile Crisis U2 Squadron Commander

Col. William “Greg” Gregory served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and saw extensive combat over North Africa and Europe during World War 2. When the Air Force was created he continued his role as a pilot and eventually became part of the clandestine U-2 spy plane program, rising to the position of squadron commander. … Read more

Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe

Today we’re talking to  Alison Lewis, a professor in German at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of several books, including one in German about love and gender in literature during Germany’s reunification and a book in German about the Stasi’s infiltration of the literary underground. We spoke to Alison in episode 71. … Read more

Flying the Cold War SR-71 Blackbird Spy Plane

  Welcome to Episode 27 of Cold war conversations. Today we are talking about the SR71 Blackbird spy plane of which only 32 were ever made. The great defensive ability of the plane was its high speed and altitude. Standard evasive action was just to accelerate, which made it almost invulnerable to the attack technologies … Read more

Gary Powers & the 1960 U2 Incident

    Welcome to episode 23 of Cold War Conversations. Today’s episode is the first in a new partnership we have formed with the Cold War Museum. We speak with Gary Powers Junior. His father piloted the U2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers’ U-2 was shot down on May 1, 1960, … Read more

BRIXMIS, British defence of Cold War Berlin, and Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess

  Welcome to episode 21 of Cold War Conversations Today we’re talking to Nigel Dunkley MBE a former Royal Scots Dragoon Guard, performed intelligence gathering duties in the former East Germany with BRIXMIS during the Cold War. BRIXMIS ( British Commanders’-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany) was an intelligence organisation worked throughout the Cold … Read more

My Stasi file is as thick as a phone book

Welcome to Episode 12 of Cold War Conversations. Today’s guest is someone I’ve been trying to speak to for some time as his story is a particularly fascinating one. We’re chatting with Mark Reeder a musician and music producer who has been involved in the Berlin and international music scene since 1978, starting as Factory Records … Read more