Pete – a BRIXMIS driver behind enemy lines in East Germany

Pete Curran served with BRIXMIS, the British Military Liaison Mission in East Germany. Their operation was established by a post-WWII Allied occupation forces’ agreement, where British, US and French missions had relative freedom to travel and collect intelligence throughout East Germany from 1947 until 1990. Pete’s story starts with details of his vetting interview, driver … Read more

Soviet and U.S. Military Liaison Missions & US Counterintelligence

I speak with Aden Magee who operated as the commander of a highly specialized Counterintelligence (CI) unit in West Germany during the last decade of the Cold War. We talk about his book The Cold War Wilderness of Mirrors – Counterintelligence and the U.S. and Soviet Military Liaison Missions 1947–1990. This is a rare book … Read more

Watching Socialism : The Television Revolution in Cold War Eastern Europe

Watching Socialism: The Television Revolution in Eastern Europe is an exhibition co-curated by the Wende Museum and British scholars Sabina Mihelj and Susan Reid.  Both the capitalist West and the communist East attempted to leverage TV as a medium that represented modernity and progress during the Cold War. While television was indeed a tool that … 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

Able Archer & the nuclear war scare of 1983

  Welcome to episode 19 of Cold War Conversations Today we’re talking to Francesca Akhtar who holds a  BA Hons in American Studies with 1st class honours  from Canterbury Christ Christ Church University in Kent, and a Masters degree in US history & Politics from the Institute of the Americas, University College London. Her main research … Read more

Eyewitness to the 1968 Prague Spring

Welcome to episode 17 of Cold War Conversations In 1968 today’s guest was 15 year old at the same school in Prague as Czech communist leader Alexander Dubček’s son. Jan Čulík provides a valuable eyewitness account of the heady days of the Prague Spring and the subsequent Warsaw Pact invasion. He provides some insightful views … Read more

The 1968 Prague Spring

Today we have with us Lani Seelinger of Socialism Realised which is an excellent website and learning environment that uses multimedia content as teaching aids about the communist regimes in Europe. Using the Czechoslovak example, they describe the specifics of life in the Eastern bloc. Their material attempts to bring the experiences, thoughts, feelings and … Read more

Episode 8 – Warsaw Pact Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Welcome to Episode 8 of Cold War Conversations where we talk about the armoured fighting vehicles of the Warsaw Pact. Russell Phillips has written several books on Warsaw Pact military equipment and our conversation is an interesting exchange covering  the evolution in design, tactics and the deployment of Warsaw Pact armoured forces should the Cold War … Read more