Cold War US Army Intelligence Analyst (127)

Jun 19, 2020

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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.

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Back to today’s episode, we welcome Bill to our Cold War conversation…

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0:00 Introduction and guest background

0:50 Bill's role as a US Army intelligence analyst

2:27 Importance of financial support for the podcast

6:24 Tracking Soviet units and military liaison missions

16:04 The fall of the Berlin Wall and its impact on intelligence operations

22:13 Observing a Soviet installation firsthand and interacting with East German civilians

31:01 The end of three-power control of Berlin and the deactivation of USMLM

35:24 German intelligence services, BND, and their collaboration with USMLM

38:25 Formation of the Combined Analysis Detachment Berlin (CAD B) and surveillance operations

56:36 Handling of Russian nuclear weapons storage facilities and shift to human intelligence

1:06:30 Episode closing remarks

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