Sue Boyd - Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in East Berlin (151)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2020

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sue Boyd has been the head of Australian diplomatic missions in Fiji, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Bangladesh. She also had postings at the United Nations in New York and in the former East Germany. Sue was posted to East Germany in 1976 and tells of her work, friendships, and life as a single woman in the diplomatic community of 1970s East Berlin. She reveals the fascinating contents of her Stasi file, detailing the intense surveillance she was under as well as confirmation of some of her suspicions, but also there are some surprising revelations too. Buy Sue's book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/2JfHiEU Now it does take a lot of effort and expense to produce the podcast and I could really do with some help to support my work. So if you want to really help preserve Cold War history then for only about $3, £3 or €3 per month you can help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus you can get a sought after CWC coaster as a monthly financial supporter and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, then you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us as well as sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show. I am delighted to welcome Sue Boyd to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode in our show notes which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode151/ If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye. Radio GDR If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations 0:00 Introduction of Sue Boyd and her diplomatic career 1:17 Sue Boyd's postings at the United Nations and East Germany 3:19 Sue Boyd's early career in the Australian foreign service 6:01 Sue Boyd's unexpected posting to East Germany and role as 1st secretary 9:07 Sue Boyd's travel experiences and surveillance by Stasi 15:13 Sue Boyd's observations on East Bloc countries' relationships with the Soviet Union 22:31 Building relationships and friendships in the GDR 34:49 Comments on Sue Boyd's journalist contacts in East Germany 47:12 Sue Boyd's surveillance stories and the impact of Stasi 1:00:02 Gough Whitlam's visit to the GDR in 1976 and Sue Boyd's role 1:03:32 Sue Boyd's book about her life as a diplomat Chapters powered by PodcastAI✨ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:07.0	She said, you know, as I'm an artist, I'm a sensitive person, and you talk about places you go and places you've seen and countries that I have no chance of ever visiting.
0:18.5	And I find it really painful.
0:21.6	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:26.6	Massive Soviet military forces have invaded the small, non-aligned, sovereign nation of Afghanistan.
0:35.6	Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this. unaligned sovereign nation of Afghanistan.
0:42.2	Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.
0:50.1	6.0.8.8.3.
0:58.5	And I'm here to host this final program from the German Democratic Republic for you.
1:08.2	Welcome to Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
1:12.5	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes. Sue Boyd has been the head of Australian diplomatic missions in
1:19.9	Fiji, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Bangladesh. She also had postings at the United Nations in New York
1:26.7	and the former East Germany.
1:29.3	Sue was posted to East Germany in 1976 and tells us of her work, friendships and life as a single
1:36.1	woman in the diplomatic community of 1970s East Berlin.
1:40.5	She reveals the fascinating contents of her Stasi file,
1:46.9	detailing the intense surveillance she was under,
1:49.9	as well as confirmation of some of her suspicions.
1:53.5	But also there's some surprise revelations too.
1:58.5	Now, it does take a lot of effort and expense to produce this podcast,
2:01.8	and I could really do with some help to support my work.
2:08.6	So if you want to help preserve Cold War history, then for only about $3, 3 pounds or three euros a month, you can help keep us on the air. Larger amounts are always welcome.
	...

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