The Cold War Berlin spy tunnel - Operation Gold (103)

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

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2020

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 a veteran journalist who reported for the Washington Post and the author of Betrayal in Berlin a new book that tells the story of one of the West’s greatest espionage operations of the Cold War. Now I’m sure you are enjoying your weekly dose of Cold War history, and you’d like to continue to do so. So I’m asking if you wouldn’t mind supporting us by paying at least $3 USD a month – higher amounts are welcome too. It’s very straightforward and you can stop whenever you want. Plus monthly supporters get the sought after CWC coaster too! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Back to today’s episode, Steve’s dogged research unearthed recently declassified documents in U.S., British and German archives, many of them secret for half a century. He interviewed dozens of key participants many of whom had never spoken before about their roles. We welcome Steve Vogel 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/episode103/ If you like what you are hearing, please leave reviews in Apple podcasts and share us on social media. 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. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.9	When Khrushchev gave his secret speech, some of the first information that the West gets that this has occurred comes from Marshall Gretchenko's wife, among others, who are making calls back to relatives in Berlin.
0:24.9	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to
0:31.9	first-hand Cold War history accounts. Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app or join our emailing list
0:39.5	at Cold War Conversations.com.
0:44.1	Steve Vogel is a veteran journalist who reported for the Washington Post for more than two
0:49.6	decades. He's also the author of Betrayal in Berlin, a new book that tells the story of one of the West's greatest espionage operations of the Cold War.
1:00.7	Now, I'm sure you are enjoying your weekly dose of Cold War history and you'd like to continue to do so.
1:08.2	So I'm asking if you wouldn't mind supporting us by paying at least three US dollars a month.
1:14.3	Higher amounts are welcome to.
1:16.4	It's very straightforward and you can stop whenever you want.
1:19.9	Plus monthly supporters get the sort after Cold War Conversations drinks coaster too.
1:26.4	Just go to cold warconversations.com slash donate.
1:31.1	You can also help support the podcast by leaving written reviews in Apple Podcasts or wherever
1:38.0	you listen to us.
1:39.7	We've recently had some great reviews from Sir Gifts, Neil Gussman, Mr Mark N4CC, and Walshie
1:48.1	Joe. Thanks so much for those great reviews. So back to today's episode, Steve's dogged
1:55.2	research unearthed recently declassified documents in US, British and German archives, many of them secret
2:02.8	for half a century. He interviewed dozens of key participants, many of whom have never spoken
2:10.1	before about their roles. We welcome Steve Vogel to our Cold War conversation.
2:24.0	Thank you. Vogue to our Cold War conversation. Now, I really enjoyed betrayal in Berlin right up my street.
2:29.7	Do love a good espionage story.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ian Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ian Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.