Cold War Conversations

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 Vietnam War period where he saw first hand the toll on the US military and the racism prevalent in the American South.  An interview with a Soviet journalist which was broadcast on PBS radio (the US equivalent of the BBC) was the catalyst for an almost one-man campaign to reduce tensions between the two superpowers. At this point, Robert was working as a US Mailman where he financed numerous visits to the Soviet Union to foster a better understanding between the two systems and became friends with many Soviet personalities including Dean Reed and legendary Soviet journalist Vladimir Posner. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help us grow the number of listeners. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute at least $3 USD per month to help keep

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 Berlin but frequently crossed back into the East to teach and meet friends. In this episode we talk to her about her experiences and her impression of the two Germanys in 1989.  During her time in Rostock, Susan got in trouble with the authorities over bulletin board known as ‘The Wall’; the way she was censured by senior academics in the GDR sheds a valuable light on how people lived within the strict system of control by using humour and compromise.  Susan talks about finding the humanity in the GDR and how, as she watched the wall fall in 1989, that she wondered if unification would truly benefit all Germans. Susan also retrieved her personal Stasi File and talks about how they tracked and monitored her during her time in the GDR and the assumptions that they made (not always successfully!). If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple

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 terms of possible blackmail: ‘kompromat‘ (compromising material). This especially held true for journalists who later might find themselves in an important position, such as press spokesman at a ministry. We later talk about Hans’ visit to a Soviet chemical weapons facility and testing ground on the Volga, some 750 kms southeast of Moscow as well as his service in the Dutch Army. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help us grow the number of listeners. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute at least $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are we

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 go beyond that and immerse ourselves to see what it felt like to be there. The two technologies of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality may allow us to do this. Robin Hardenberg is a Berlin-based filmmaker who has developed ’The Berlin Wall App’ which uses Augmented Reality to bring the drama of the division of Berlin to those who are able to walk around the City. Patrick Furlong is Head of Factual at Remarkable TV and has produced VR content for YouTube’s Virtually History series about the Berlin Wall. These programs allow you to immerse yourself in key episodes in Berlin’s Cold War history from your own home.  If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help us grow the number of listeners. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute at least $3

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 Pact armies working closely with the US Military Liaison Mission (USMLM) in Berlin which led to a transfer there in November 1989 Stationed in Potsdam he became an Order of Battle Analyst and participated in a handful of collection tours with the USMLM as the “back seater”.  He tells of the little know history of USMLM during this period and the continued monitoring of Soviet Forces in Germany post the opening of the Berlin Wall and even post reunification to the Soviet’s eventual withdrawal in 1994.  If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute at least $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus you can get a sought after CWC coaster as a month

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, street violence and murder in several cities over the course of roughly a week led the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu to flee the capital city on 22 December with his wife. We hear the challenges of being a journalist in what was effectively a war zone without the risk assessments and protective gear of the present day. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Thanks to latest Patreo

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 the Soviet Union, Hungary & Poland as well as the perils of editing analogue tape in a non-digital age. Among his interviewees we talk about the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa as well the ordinary people of the Warsaw Pact countries. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Thanks to latest Patreons  Back to today’s episode, part 2 of three episodes with Mark and as you will hear we have a lot

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 Royal Air Force to the Royal Navy. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. It costs money and time to produce this podcast so I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Thanks to latest Patreons including Chris Pearson, Dave Parry, John Rafferty, This is Rammy, John Helsinki Scott G, Graham Horlock and Mister Giles. Back to today’s episode, the story pivots around a single day in April 1965. The recently-established Labour government very publi

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 fish and very poor quality beer. He returned in 1974-75 as Reuters trainee journalist where he became very close to Andrei Sakharov, the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and Soviet-era dissident. East Berlin was his first solo posting for Reuters, where he and his wife Jutta both sang in the East Berlin Cathedral choir for four years, including two as BBC Berlin, with the honorary status of Lieut Col. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War hi

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 commander and responsible for 3 of these deadly weapons.  The Pershing II was a mobile, intermediate-range ballistic missile deployed by the U.S. Army at American bases in West Germany beginning in 1983. It was aimed at targets in the western Soviet Union. Each Pershing II carried a single, variable-yield thermonuclear warhead with an explosive force equivalent to 5-50 kilotons of TNT. Under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, all Pershing IIs and their support equipment were removed from the inventory and rendered inoperable If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to help keep us on the a

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 during the move to reunification with West Germany. Michael is a military historian, author, researcher and illustrator. He began his career with the military magazine 'Battlefields Review' as a writer and illustrator, before working in the printed books department at the Imperial War Museum, London. Michael has lectured frequently on military history and related subjects. Now if you are enjoying the podcast I’m asking for a few quid or dollars a month to help keep us on the air. It’s not much, perhaps a coffee or two a month, plus you become the envy of your friends with that sought after CWC coaster too. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If you can’t donate financially then you can also help us by leaving a written review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to this podcast. Fancy a Cold War Conversations mug? Check out our merchandise st

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 trained soldiers who, should hostilities break out, were to wreak havoc behind Warsaw Pact lines.  The US government only acknowledged its existence in 2014 and John has written an incredible story of how these unsung heroes would have fought and died on what was effectively a one way mission.  If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Thanks to latest Patreons Ian Crangle, Steve

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 Federation as we know it today. In Moscow, Alan had the opportunity to live and study in the well-known Moscow State University as well as the opportunity to attend the 54th anniversary of the Russian Revolution Parade in 1971 in Moscow. In addition, Alan was awarded a Peace Scholarship to study in Leipzig at the Karl-Marx-Universität and worked for the Novosti News Agency in London which meant travelling extensively in the USSR visiting Star City and the construction of Trans-Siberian pipeline Our reviews help the podcast grow, so if you are enjoying our content please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus you can get a sought after Cold War Conversations coaster as a monthly financial supporter of the p

Richard Hornik was the Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine from 1981-1983. He carried out numerous interviews with Solidarity Free Trade Union leader Lech Wałęsa including his last interview before martial law was declared in December 1981. He shares the stories of 1980s Poland as well as the interviews he carried out with the Solidarity leadership and the leaders of Communist Poland.  If you are enjoying the show please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. Now for $3 USD per month (larger amounts are welcome too) you can get a sought after CWC coaster as a monthly financial supporter of the podcast. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Thank you so much to our 89 generous supporters who help keep the podcast available for you all to listen to. In today’s episode, Richard and I talk about his interview with General Jaruselski and his meeting with Father Jerzy Popieluszko as well as his challenges w

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 the capacity to annihilate the other, was tense. By the end of the decade, East-West relations had been utterly transformed, with most of the dividing lines -including the division of Europe- removed.  We are here with Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy, and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He is the author of numerous books including his latest work , The Human Factor, Gorbachev, Reagan, and Thatcher, and the End of the Cold War arguing the engagement between Gorbachev and Reagan was a crucial part of that process of change. More surprising was Margaret Thatcher's role.  Our reviews help the podcast grow, so if you are enjoying our content please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media.  If you can spare it I’m asking

Lieutenant Commander Jørgen Brandsborg joined the Danish Navy in the 1980s. He met the Soviets up close and personal while serving in the North Atlantic where the Danish Navy acted as a coast guard when on patrol around the Faroe Islands, which meant boarding Soviet vessels for inspection. He also tells of Danish Navy training, Denmark’s position within NATO, as well as their defence plans, should the Cold War have turned hot. If you’re new here, you’ve come the right place to listen to first hand Cold War history accounts. Do make you subscribe in your podcast app so you don’t miss out on future episodes. Our reviews help the podcast grow, so if you are enjoying our content please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus you can get a sought after Cold War Conversations coaster as a monthly financial supporter of the podcast and you bask in the

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 World Cup qualifying game.  Looking for somewhere unusual to holiday Mike Innes went on 10 day tour to Albania. Arriving by air he travelled by coach, staying in the hotels which catered to foreigners and favoured party members.  If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. It costs money and time to produce this podcast so I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Mike provides us with a view of a little known country which although outside the Wa

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 the drinking (and the fighting) to the urban warfare training in Ruhleben & Dough Boy City. We also hear of the reality of knowing that should the Cold War have turned hot his life expectancy would have been in hours.   It’s also a tale of tragedy and the forgotten casualties of the Cold War where injury and death could come even in peacetime. Two of Anthony’s fellow soldiers died during his two-year tour of Berlin and we’d like to dedicate this episode to remembering Lance-Corporal Ian Fleming and Lance-Corporal Mick Quayle. We thank them for their service. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus yo

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 themselves in 1989. He shares stories of the interesting encounters he had along the way.  Now I’d like to thank some of our recent 5 star reviewers in Apple podcasts. Qwertykevboy, Fizzlepop202, simmovic, Dais28, Tim of Townsville and especially Marrdave who said “This is easily the best historical podcast out there…” I’m not sure I agree, but I’m very flattered.  If you are enjoying the show please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. Now for $3 USD per month (larger amounts are welcome too) you will get a sought after CWC coaster as a monthly financial supporter of the podcast. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Thank you so much to our 89 generous supporters who help keep the podcast available for you all to listen to. In today’s episode, I have a

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 prepared those in power a variety of booklets, posters, and how-to guides.  Taras Young is a researcher & writer who has produced a book Nuclear War in the UK detailing much of this Cold War ephemera such as the infamous Protect and Survive guide, as well as fascinating lesser-known materials prepared for the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and the Royal Observer Corps.  If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written review in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. It costs money and time to produce this podcast so I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to 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 of the podcast. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ In