Cold War Conversations Podcast
Episodes
The Last British Commandant in Cold War West Berlin Part 1 (136)
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Major General Sir Robert Corbett, KCVO, CB was the last Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin. We start his story with the description of his fir...
Eva - A Cold War Czechoslovak Childhood (135)
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Born in Communist Czechoslovakia, Eva Caletkova has written an honest and unflinching account of her childhood in Bratislava. Eva’s parents were Cat...
My father was Cold War Stasi spy Werner Stiller (134)
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 wor...
Retracing the Iron Curtain: A 3,000-Mile Journey Through the End and Afterlife of the Cold War (133)
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Phillips travelled the route of the former Iron Curtain from deep inside the arctic circle to the meeting point in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey....
Cold War Czechoslovak hockey star defects to Canada (132)
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Vashi Nedomanský is the son of Czechoslovak former legendary ice hockey forward Václav Nedomanský aka “Big Ned” who is best known as the first...
Robert - The anti Cold War activist (131)
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Perschmann describes himself as an anti-Cold War activist. His political views started to form while serving in the US Air Force during the Vie...
Susan - An American teaching English in East Germany (130)
11 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Susan Morrison is Professor of English at Texas State University. In the late 1980’s she taught in Rostock in the former GDR and then lived in West...
The KGB tried to recruit me (129)
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Experiencing the Cold War via virtual reality (128)
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How can we go beyond the films, books, and photos to learn more about the Cold War? Films are certainly evocative and certainly inform but how can we...
Cold War US Army Intelligence Analyst (127)
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bill was a US Army Intelligence Analyst. In 1986 he was assigned to Order of Battle Branch, Soviet Section where for three years he studied the Warsaw...
Reporting the 1989 Romanian Revolution (126)
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We talk again to Mark Brayne who worked as a Reuters & BBC journalist during the Cold War. This time we are in Romania in December 1989 where riots, s...
A British Journalist under Stasi Surveillance (125)
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We talk to Mark Brayne again in a wide ranging chat about his career as a Reuters & BBC journalist including details of his Stasi file, his time in th...
Cold War Britain & The Bomb (124)
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Britain and the Bomb Bill Nuttall considers Britain's national journey from Empire to Europe and the transition of British nuclear weapons from the...
A UK Journalist in the Soviet Union & GDR (123)
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Brayne studied in Moscow 71-72, travelling the country with fellow UK students and spending silly amounts of time in the bathhouses with salted f...
A 23 year old Cold War nuclear missile commander (122)
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scott was a Pershing 2 nuclear missile Fire Control Officer which meant he was responsible for the launch of the missile. Aged 23 he was made platoon ...
The Last Days of Cold War East Germany (121)
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 dur...
Special Forces Berlin - Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956-1990 (120)
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
James Stejskal served for 23 years with US Special Forces, including two tours in Berlin. Special Forces Berlin was a small detachment of 100 highly t...
Alan - Working in the GDR and the Soviet Union (119)
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alan Baker worked and studied in the GDR and the USSR from the 1970s through to the end of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the Russian Federatio...
Cold War Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine 1981-83 (118)
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Hornik was the Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine from 1981-1983. He carried out numerous interviews with Solidarity Free Trade Union leade...
The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan, and Thatcher, and the End of the Cold War (117)
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Cold War got colder in the early 1980s and the relationship between the two military superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, each of whom had t...
Boarding Soviet Ships with the Cold War Danish Navy (116)
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lieutenant Commander Jørgen Brandsborg joined the Danish Navy in the 1980s. He met the Soviets up close and personal while serving in the North Atlan...
Taking A Holiday in Cold War Albania (115)
28 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In early 1989 attention being paid to Albania in England by the English media because the England football team had recently travelled to Tirana for a...
Life as a British Soldier in Cold War West Berlin (114)
21 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony enlisted in the British Army in 1987 and after 9 months he was posted to West Berlin. He tells the story of life as a Private in Berlin from t...
Railway Encounters in Cold War Eastern Europe (113)
14 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Charlie Flowers was 18 in 1988. He travelled by train across a divided Eastern Europe that was starting to show signs of the changes that manifested t...
Nuclear War in Cold War Britain (112)
07 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For almost five decades, the United Kingdom made plans for a nuclear attack that never came. To help their citizens, civil servants and armed forces p...
Serving in the Cold War British Army Intelligence Corps during the 1960s & 70s (111)
29 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Harry served as a soldier in the Intelligence Corps in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. His role was that of an Intelligence and Security Operator, foc...
Bonus - Dr Strangelove Film Screening in a Nuclear Bunker (110)
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today is a short bonus episode I recorded at the weekend while at a film showing of Dr Strangelove in a former UK Regional Seat of Government Bunker i...
Stasi Infiltration of the Cold War East German Church (109)
22 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When the Berlin Wall came down, the files of the East German secret police, the much-dreaded Stasi, were opened and read. And among the shocking stori...
The Regimes Museum (108)
15 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest today is Marc Voss the Founder and Executive Director of The Regimes Museum which is the culmination of an effort to collect, preserve, and ...
Assigned to a Cold War Government Nuclear Bunker (107)
08 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Regional seats of government or RSGs were a UK solution to disperse the machinery of government into the provinces, where there would be a greater cha...
The First Western Pilot to Fly the Cold War Soviet MIG 29 Fighter (106)
01 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to be the first western pilot to fly the most advanced Soviet fighter aircraft? At the 1989 Abbotsford Air Show, during the dying day...
Children of the Cold War Bulgarian Silent Revolution (105)
25 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What are your dreams at 18 and what happens in the next 20 years? Children of the Silent Revolution is a documentary film following a tight-knit group...
The Cold War Berlin spy tunnel - Operation Gold (103)
11 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British) was a joint operation conducted by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) an...
A British Communist Working in Cold War East Germany (104)
11 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John Tarver was born into a middle-class family. He joined the British Communist Party on his 18th birthday in 1948 because he felt the Soviet Union h...
Working with high security clearance in the Cold War US Navy (102)
04 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Interview with Ian Sanders the host and producer of Cold War Conversations (101)
01 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Manuel - Experiences of the Reforger 82 NATO Exercise (100)
28 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 Germ...
A Cold War Mystery - Death in Ice Valley (99)
21 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an area near Bergen, Norway known as Isdalen (“Ice Valley”), but also nicknamed "Death Valley", due to the area's history of suicides in...
Red Elvis, Dean Reed Cold War cowboy and Eastern Bloc Music Star Episode 2 (98)
14 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We return to Ramona Reed’s account of her father, Dean Reed who was an American actor, singer, songwriter, director, and Socialist who became a hug...
Red Elvis, Dean Reed the US music star behind the Iron Curtain - Episode 1 (97)
07 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ramona Reed’s father was Dean Reed an American actor, singer, songwriter, director, and Socialist who became a huge star in Latin America and the Ea...
Tales of my Father (96)
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today has been a difficult day. My Dad has just died. It was expected, but these things hit you nonetheless. He was a good father, a good man with ma...
Alexander - A Conscript in the Soviet Navy (95)
30 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander ‘Sasha’ Goncharov was born in Leningrad but early in this life moved to Ukraine. After leaving school he was drafted into the Soviet Mi...
The Strange World of Cold War Romanian Football (94)
23 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we hear from Craig McCracken who spoke to us in episode 3. This time he tells us about the strange world of football in Cold War Roma...
The Berlin Wall - Frederick Taylor (93)
16 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our interview today is with Frederick Taylor, the author of one of my favourite books on the Berlin Wall. Using official history, archive research and...
Gillian - A US Student at the opening of the Berlin Wall (92)
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We speak again with Gillian, who was our guest in episodes 42 & 48. Gillian was in Berlin the night of 9th November 1989 and describes what she saw. N...
Alastair Witnesses the Wende (91)
10 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alastair took up a teaching post in Halle, East Germany in August 1989 and continued to work in Halle for the next 9 years, seeing the unraveling of t...
The Opening of the Berlin Wall (90)
09 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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. W...
Checkpoint Charlie: The Berlin Wall and the most dangerous place on Earth (89)
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our interview today is with Iain MacGregor, the author of a new book on Checkpoint Charlie. Weaving together personal testimonies, this book is descri...
Life as a Soviet Child Refugee in West Germany (88)
02 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we continue Andrej’s story with his sometimes, harrowing memories of how he became a child refugee in West Germany. Now if you li...
British Forces in Germany: The Lived Experience 1945-2019 (87)
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Peter Johnston is the Head of Collections Research and Academic Access at the National Army Museum in London and the author of a lavishly illustrat...
Growing up on a Soviet base in East Germany (86)
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Andrej's father served with the Soviet Army in Germany. He grew up on a military base and shares his childhood memories as East Germany began to disi...
Childhood at the Hungarian Border with Austria (85)
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Balint grew up in Hungary right next to the border with Austria. Part of his family escaped in 1956 and went to Australia. Balint’s grandfather sur...
Life on a Cold War Polaris Nuclear Missile Submarine (84)
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a restless and adventurous 18-year-old, Richard Humphreys joined the submarine service in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the nuclear deterrent fo...
Mark - Eyewitness to the events of 1989 (83)
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Baker was a journalist in Vienna who covered Czechoslovakia during the 1980s. In a wide ranging conversations we discuss the events of 1989 with ...
A Cold War Romance (82)
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 1986 GDR student Antje met a British guy who was installing sewing machines in the hosiery companies in East Germany. Unusually he was given quite ...
Eyewitness to the 1991 Soviet Coup (81)
20 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a 24-year-old Kieran Williams was in Moscow staying with Soviet friends when the 1991 Moscow Coup occurred. He is a Professor at Drake University i...
Cuban Missile Crisis U2 Squadron Commander (80)
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 F...
Bridget Kendall - BBC Moscow Correspondent 1989 - 1995 (79)
06 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we have James taking the helm again with a fascinating chat with Bridget Kendall, the BBC's Moscow correspondent from 1989 to 1995 when she was ...
Watching Socialism: The Cold War Television Revolution in Eastern Europe (78)
30 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’re at the Wende Museum in Los Angeles at their Watching Socialism exhibition. Organized in collaboration with British-Slovenian media histo...
Defending the Cold War Pershing 2 nuclear missile (77)
23 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Phil Logan served in the US Army from 1986-1991. He went through infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia was sent to Germany and assigned to the gro...
The early days of the Cold War US Space program and origins of GPS (76)
16 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Easton is the co-author of GPS Declassified which examines the development of GPS or Sat Nav as some of us call it now, from its secret, Cold ...
Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe (75)
09 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 Ger...
A visit to World War 2 and Cold War airbase RAF Burtonwood (74)
02 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I’m here today at the RAF Burtonwood Heritage Centre, near Warrington in the UK. Based on what was once the largest and longest-running military air...
Breaking the news of the 1991 Soviet Coup (73)
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We speak today with Alistair Coleman who joined BBC Monitoring as a technician in 1989, just in time for the Berlin Wall. He was on a console night...
Chasing the Moon - The Apollo 11 Moon Landing (72)
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a world divided by the ideological struggles of the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, more than one-fifth of the people on t...
Stasi Infiltration of the Prenzlauer Berg Underground Literary Scene (71)
12 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we speak with Dr Alison Lewis is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Australi...
Secret Cold War Dutch submarine missions (70)
05 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
During the Cold War, six Dutch submarines secretly gathered intelligence about the Soviet Navy. Only a handful of people outside the Royal Netherlands...
A US Soldier defects to Cold War East Germany – Part 2 (69)
28 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We continue the story of Victor Grossman the US Army soldier who defected to East Germany. He tells us of his life in the GDR, his close friendship wi...
Nuking the Moon & Other Cold War Intelligence Schemes & Military Plots left on the Drawing Board (68)
21 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We talk with Vince Houghton – Curator of the International Spy Museum who has just written a new book called “Nuking the Moon & Other Intelligence...
Janina - Life in a Cold War East German village near the Polish border (67)
14 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Todays episode is different, the interviewer is not me, but one of our listeners who contacted me to help produce content for the podcast. This gave m...
Cold War fiction - Liberation Square (66)
07 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gareth Rubin is an author and journalist and today we’re talking to him about his latest novel, Liberation Square set in a Soviet occupied UK in the...
A tour of Cold War airbase RAF Upper Heyford (65)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we visit RAF Upper Heyford for a photography tour for Cold War enthusiasts … The episode is in three parts, the first is some audio...
Flying the Cold War CF-104 Starfighter over Germany (63)
17 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Laurie Hawn is a retired Canadian Member of Parliament and former career fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Laurie tells the story of...
Disarming Doomsday - The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons since Hiroshima (62)
10 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we speak with Dr Becky-Alexis Martin who is a lecturer in Cultural and Political Geography at Manchester Metropolitan University and a...
A Cold War US Soldier defects to East Germany (61)
03 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What could make a privileged 24-year-old American serving in the US Army in Germany in 1952 to swim across the Danube River to what was then the Sovie...
Working at the British Embassy in Cold War Bucharest (60)
26 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we speak with Colin Munro who has had an extensive career with the British Diplomatic Service. Today we speak about his time as He...
A 1980s trip on the Trans Siberian Railway (59)
19 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we speak with Mark Wiegers who travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway in the late 1980s. His story tells of trouble with officialdom,...
58 - Red Reporter - Covert Correspondent for East Germany - Part 2
12 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we welcome back John Green to talk further about his covert journalism for East Germany. His story continues with his account of t...
A 17 year old in the Cold War US Army (57)
05 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we speak to Manuel Alzaga who as a 17 year old joined the US Army in 1981. Manuel signed up to the artillery and tells his story from life of ...
The Cold War Candy Bomber (56)
30 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We speak to 98 year old Gail Halvorsen aka "The Candy Bomber" who flew in the Berlin Airlift in 1948. The Soviets had started a 11-month land blockad...
Why Preserve Cold War Communist Architecture? (55)
23 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We welcome back Mark Baker from episode 9 where we spoke about his time in 1980s Czechoslovakia. Mark is a freelance journalist & travel writer li...
Cold War Canadians Hunt For Red October (54)
16 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Colonel Terry Chester spent a good portion of his RCAF career hunting for Soviet Submarines in both the Pacific and Atlantic area's of operation. H...
Cold War East German Army Officer at the Fall of the Berlin Wall (53)
09 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we hear the third and final part of Torsten Belger’s story as he tells us about his first visit to West Berlin, leaving the East Ger...
László Nagy - A Cold War Hungarian Life (52)
02 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
László Nagy was one of the early members of the Hungarian Democratic Forum in 1987. The HDF became Hungary’s largest political party following fir...
The Cold War Blood Tattoo (51)
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 1951, a small pilot program was launched in Indiana and Utah as a civilian defense measure to aid in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. The idea wa...
The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science - Freedom's Laboratory (50)
23 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Audra J Wolfe is writer, editor, and historian based in Philadelphia. With a background in both science and history her work specifically focuses on ...
An RAF pilot remembers the end of the Cold War (49)
16 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we welcome back Nick Anderson who told us about his RAF service intercepting TU-95 Soviet Bear bombers over the North Sea. The sto...
Gillian - A US Student visits Cold War Poland in 1989 (48)
09 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we welcome back Gillian Cox who told us about her student trip to East Germany in 1989. In this episode the story continues with her t...
Red Reporter - Covert Correspondent for Cold War East Germany - Part 1 (47)
02 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we speak to John Green. John Green grew up in Coventry in a communist family. After abandoning a zoology degree course after his second year at ...
The Berlin Trilogy - Author Interview (46)
26 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today we welcome author Paul Grant whose excellent Berlin trilogy is set in Berlin during World War 2 and the Cold War. Paul and I talk about the bo...
Cold War East German Army Officer at the 40th Anniversary Parade of East Germany (45)
19 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we welcome back Torsten Belger a former East German Officer. You can listen to other episodes with Torsten here https://coldwarconv...
Cold War intercepts of Soviet Aircraft with the RAF (44)
12 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nick Anderson is a former RAF Phantom jet fighter pilot. We discuss flying in the Cold War and in detail how the RAF would have responded to a nuc...
Cold War Conversations highlights of 2018 - a whistle stop tour (43)
05 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the Cold War Conversations History Podcast 2018 roundup and thank you to all our listeners and guests who’ve stuck with us and made the p...
Gillian - A US Student visiting Cold War East Germany (42)
29 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 wh...
Defending the Cold War Fulda Gap (41)
22 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we talk again with Neil Gussman who was an M60A1 tank commander in West Germany tasked with defending the Fulda Gap which was a key likely Warsa...
A British Journalist in Cold War East Berlin (40)
15 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Shane Whaley from the GDR Radio Podcast and Spybrary podcast and I speak with Peter Millar. Peter is an award-winning journalist who was named Foreign...
Cold War East German Army Officer Training (39)
08 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We speak with Torsten Belger who trained as an Artillery Officer in the East German Army. Torsten also runs Germandotmilitaria which is a web site...
Training to be a Cold War US Army Tank Commander (38)
01 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’re talking to Neil Gussman who trained on the M60A1 tank in the 1970s. This was the standard main battle tank of the US Army from the 1960s...
Antje - The Girl Behind The Berlin Wall (37)
24 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're talking to Antje Arnold, author of “The Girl Behind The Wall” which tells the story of a girl growing up in East Germany in the 1980s....
Life in Cold War East Germany Photography Exhibition (36)
18 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today we visit the Totally East: Life in East Germany Photography Exhibition. Run-down façades, punks and ordinary workers: This exhibition shows t...