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PODCAST

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

Experience the Cold War like never before with Cold War Conversations — an award-winning podcast recommended by The New York Times. Each week, host Ian Sanders brings you raw, firsthand accounts from the people who lived through one of history’s most tense and transformative eras — soldiers, spies, civilians, and more. These aren’t stories from textbooks. They’re unfiltered voices from the frontlines of history — emotional, gripping, and deeply human. This is Cold War history, told from the

history documentary

All Episodes

75:44

An 18 year old US Military Policeman in Cold War West...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/09/16

Richard Blevins enlisted aged 18 in the US Army in March of 1987. He completed Basic Training & Military Police School training in July of 1987 and was posted to West Berlin as a United States Military Policeman. He describes his selection for Berlin duty while at Rhine-Main AFB in Frankfurt and his first journey across East Germany on the US Duty train to West Berlin. Richard’s first year consisted of patrol duties and combat training as well as serving at Checkpoints Bravo and Charlie as the

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43:15

A trip across Central Europe on a East German MZ...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/09/09

MZ was an East German motorcycle manufacturer located in Zschopau, Saxony. The acronym MZ stands for Motorenwerke Zschopau GmbH (German for Zschopau engine factory). In the 1980s MZ was regarded by the British motorcycle press as producing ugly and old-fashioned (if worthy) motorcycles however, there was a hard-core set of UK fans who loved this relatively, cheap and easy-to-repair bike. Julian Howe was a big fan of the MZ bike. He tells of a bizarre honeymoon of fellow MZ club members which

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61:28

Imprisoned in a Soviet Military gaol - a BRIXMIS...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/09/02

This is the 2nd part of my interview with Lt Col. Stephen Harrison, MBE who served for two years as a full-time Touring Officer with BRIXMIS. The tours were hazardous three-man, vehicle-borne patrols collecting intelligence on the Warsaw Pact forces in East Germany for up to five days and nights over a series of four-month patrolling periods. In this episode, we hear of Stephen’s imprisonment in a Soviet Army gaol, following detention in a Soviet Army garrison town as well as East German and Soviet

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52:38

Arrested 11 times, plus 3 shooting incidents - a...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/08/26

Lt Col. Stephen Harrison, MBE served for two years as a full-time Touring Officer with BRIXMIS. These Tours were hazardous three man, vehicle-borne patrols collecting intelligence on the Warsaw Pact forces in East Germany for up to five days and nights over a series of four-month patrolling periods. They lived in the field and did not carry weapons while Soviet and East German troops were nearly always armed, and their ever-present sentries carried live ammunition. The Tours operated in the closest

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51:00

Life in the forbidden zone at the East/West German...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/08/19

A young Claudia Bierschenk lived at the edge of a world called the GDR, in a village surrounded by hills, valleys and thick forests. Her great uncle lives in the Forbidden Zone, the area where the East German border is a few metres away from West Germany. This is where the villages are like ghosts towns and inhabitants need special permits to enter. Claudia provides a vivid and unique description of entering the Forbidden Zone for the first time after being granted special permits to visit her

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56:18

The girl at the edge of the World - an East German...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/08/12

A young Claudia Bierschenk lived in a village surrounded by hills, valleys and thick forests at the edge of a world called the GDR. It could be beautiful, but the Iron Curtain runs through it, like a tectonic plate separating East and West and Claudia from her West German relatives. She tells of her life in this isolated area, of village life, far away from the socialist showpiece of East Berlin, where there are only two types of yoghurt in the village store. In a series of snapshots, we re-live

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60:41

A daughter's 18 year search for her Cold War CIA...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/08/05

In 1961, members of the Alabama Air National Guard secretly took part in the failed invasion of Cuba by U.S.-backed Cuban exiles known as the Bay of Pigs. This was a covert attempt by the United States to overthrow the Soviet-allied Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Pete Ray was one of eight Alabama guardsmen who flew combat missions on April 19th 1961, which resulted in the deaths of Pete and three members of the Alabama unit. U.S. President John F. Kennedy later acknowledged America's

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86:54

British Army Air Corps helicopter co-pilot in Cold...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/07/29

Paul continues his story with his recruitment into the Army Air Corps. It’s initially delayed with a tour providing airfield repair in West Germany and then the Falklands, but finally, he’s at training at Middle Wallop, the home of the Army Air Corps. He describes the training including underwater escapes, flying and navigation. As a Gazelle crewman, his role was navigator, observer and co-pilot. We hear of exercises including the lesser-known Railex/Probex, a US, French and British exercise to

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57:25

A boy soldier in the Cold War Royal Engineers (245)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/07/22

Paul joined the Royal Engineers in 1977, aged 16 as an apprentice. We hear of his experience of joining the army at such a young age and being away from home for the first time. After initial training his first posting was to Osnabruck in 1979. Shortly after his arrival Paul is appointed to the challenging role of driver to the Squadron Sergeant Major With participation in exercises such as Crusader 80 and Active Edge Paul describes in detail the role of Royal Engineers in Cold War Germany,

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84:22

A Mormon missionary in Cold War East Germany (244)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/07/14

In the early 1980s East Germany had just 5000 members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, many of which had been members since before World War 2. In 1982 East German leader Erich Honecker historically allowed the church to build a temple in Freiberg and in 1988 Mormon missionaries were allowed into East Germany. Ken Brady describes his experiences as a Mormon missionary in East Germany as the country gradually disappeared and was absorbed into West Germany. Ken also gives us a valuable view of

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77:10

US Navy Cold War airborne electronic reconnaissance...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/07/08

KC flew the US Navy’s airborne Electronic Reconnaissance during the 1980s in the Lockheed EP-3 which is an electronic signals reconnaissance version of the P-3 Orion. He flew as a Navigator, Senior Electronic Warfare Evaluator and Mission Commander. We hear about several missions he was involved in including his first detachment to Athens the then main USN operating base for missions in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. We also hear about flying in the Baltic from bases in the UK

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78:26

My life laid bare through secret police files (242)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/07/01

What is it like to be under secret police surveillance? On 10 March 1983, 12-year-old Carmen Bugan returned from school to find Romanian secret police in her living room. Her father’s protest against the regime had changed her life forever. In recent years Carmen gained access to the files of the Romanian secret police. She herself is surprised by the intimacy of the surveillance. Forgotten conversations, love letters, and arguments are all laid bare via the detailed notes taken by the

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82:45

Royal Military Police versus the Soviets (SOXMIS) in...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/06/24

Keith Bailey Joined British Army at 16 in 1973. He was recruited into the Blues and Royals, (Household Cavalry) and served in West Germany as a gunner in Chieftain tanks. However, he was keen to serve in the Royal Military Police and particularly 19 (Support) Platoon known as "The White Mice". Their role was to track the SOXMIS (Soviet Military Mission) in West Germany. SOXMIS operated under a 1946 agreement where the Soviets, British, US and French agreed to exchange mission groups to patrol the

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51:13

The man who built his own nuclear bunker (240)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/06/17

Graham Bate was 30-year-old Civil Servant when he built his own nuclear bunker in the garden of his rural home 20 miles outside Hull in the UK. It was here that the Bate family expected to survive for at least 3 weeks after a nuclear attack. We speak with Graham Bate and his son Conrad who was 5 years old when the bunker was built and has vivid memories of the period. 0:00 Introduction and background 0:53 Guest Introduction: Graham Bate and his nuclear bunker 2:26 The inception and design of

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79:26

Cold War number stations (239)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/06/10

You might remember listening to short wave radio during the Cold War and coming across weird transmissions of metallic voices reciting random groups of numbers through the ether. These are number stations, shortwave radio stations characterised by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which were being sent to spies operating in foreign countries. Number stations were used widely during the Cold War and we speak with Jo Reggelt. Jo has been working with Simon Mason who was a founding member of ENIGMA,

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54:14

Air warfare in the Cold War (238)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/06/03

The Cold War years were a period of unprecedented peace in Europe, yet they also saw a number of localised but nonetheless very intense wars throughout the wider world in which air power played a vital role. I speak with former Cold War Tornado pilot and acclaimed aviation historian Michael Napier who has written Flashpoints: Air Warfare in the Cold War published by Osprey which describes eight of these Cold War conflicts. We discuss the wide range of aircraft types used and the development of

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67:12

Arrested by the KGB and taken to the Lubyanka prison...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/05/27

Marti Peterson was the first female CIA operative to be assigned to Moscow, probably the most challenging posting during the Cold War. Don't miss the previous episode here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode236/ This second episode turns to TRIGON, the code name for Alexandr Ogorodnik. He was an official in the Soviet Embassy in Bogota, Columbia recruited by the CIA in 1973. Marti and TRIGON never met in person, but they shared information through dead drops and intelligence. We hear about

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58:22

The first female CIA officer in Cold War Moscow (236)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/05/20

Marti Peterson was the first female CIA operative to be assigned to Moscow, probably the most challenging posting during the Cold War. Her story begins in Laos during the Vietnam War where she accompanied her husband John, a CIA officer. She describes their life in a small city in Laos, and the devastating news she received on October 19, 1972. Marti returned to the United States and one night at dinner a good friend suggested she look into working for the CIA. After making it clear to CIA

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58:48

The 1989 World Festival of Youth and Students in...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/05/13

The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students was held from 1–8 July 1989 in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It was the largest international event staged in North Korea up until then. The event took four years of preparation by the North Korean government, which effectively spent a quarter of the country's yearly budget (US$4.5 billion) on it. Ultimately declared as the largest ever World Festival of Youth and Student with about 22,000 people from 177 countries attending. This event was the

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71:48

Britain’s Cold War Human Chemical Warfare Experiments...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2022/05/06

Ian Foulkes was exposed to the deadly nerve agent Sarin in 1983 at the Porton Down Chemical & Biological Defence Establishment., one of the UK's most secretive and controversial military research facilities. Ian describes in detail the process and the ill effects this caused him and shares details of a little-known fatality where 20-year-old Ronald Maddison died 45 minutes after what scientists thought was 200mg of liquid Sarin dripped onto his arm. We also talk about the development of chemical

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