Cold War Conversations

Ian Sanders
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Aug 6, 2018 • 1h 30min

BRIXMIS, the defence of Cold War Berlin & Rudolf Hess (21)

Welcome to Episode 21 of Cold War Conversations.Now I am very excited by today’s guest and we have a packed episode for you. Nigel Dunkley MBE is a former Royal Scots Dragoon Guard who served in Berlin with a squadron of Chieftain tanks tasked with defending the British Sector including the Brandenburg Gate should the Cold War have turned hot.Nigel also performed intelligence gathering duties in the former East Germany with BRIXMIS which was an intelligence organisation worked throughout the Cold War years from 1946 to 1990 gathering intelligence in the former Soviet Occupation Zone of East Germany on the threat posed to the West and NATO by the 20 Soviet and 6 East German Army Divisions and their Air Forces deployed there.In the 1980s Nigel also interpreted for Hitler’s Deputy Rudolf Hess in Spandau Prison, Berlin and provided some fascinating insight into the character of Hess.Later in his military career he was awarded the MBE and Bronze Star Medal for his services with the US 1st Cavalry Division during Operation Desert Storm. Nigel was also Chief of Staff at the Royal Armoured Corp Centre at Bovington, ending his army career as Defence Attache at the British Embassy in Berlin. I am delighted and honoured to welcome Nigel Dunkley. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jul 29, 2018 • 1h 22min

Anke - Life as an East German teenager (20)

Today we're talking to Anke Holst was born in the GDR during the 1970s in Rostock.Anke has returned to Rostock after many years abroad and now provides tours of GDR sites in Rostock.Our conversation highlights how different life was in the provinces of the GDR as opposed to Berlin.In a wide ranging, frank and honest discussion we talk about her family life with her mother who was a stalwart Party member, Anke's school class role as "Agitator", her training in Marxist-Leninism, and her weapons training in the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation in Rostock.Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jul 21, 2018 • 1h 14min

Able Archer and the Cold War nuclear war scare of 1983 (19)

Today we're talking to Francesca Akhtar who holds a BA Hons in American Studies with 1st class honours from Canterbury Christ Christ Church University in Kent, and a Masters degree in US history & Politics from the Institute of the Americas, University College London.Her main research interests are US Cold War foreign policy, intelligence history and defence. Francesca has written a dissertation entitled “The most dangerous Soviet-American confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis?” An analysis of the origins, nature and impact of the Able Archer 83 incident .I am delighted to welcome Francesca Akhtar to Cold War Conversations.Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jul 14, 2018 • 1h 4min

RAF Greenham Common - A history of the iconic Cold War British nuclear base.(18)

The airfield is probably best known, certainly in the UK, for the controversial deployment of Ground Launched Cruise Missiles in the 1980s and the resulting Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp outside its gates.Today’s guest is is a graduate in international relations, the author of “In Defence of Freedom; a History of RAF Greenham Common” and is also a Director of Greenham Control Tower Ltd.I am delighted to welcome Jonathan Sayers.Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jul 7, 2018 • 1h 9min

Eyewitness to the Prague Spring

In 1968 today’s guest was 15 year old at the same school in Prague as Czech communist leader Alexander Dubček’s son.Jan Čulík provides a valuable eyewitness account of the heady days of the Prague Spring and the subsequent Warsaw Pact invasion. He provides some insightful views that I found challenged my understanding of the Prague Spring.He details the situation in Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s, the Prague Spring, his experiences as the reformers were suppressed to the late 1970s and his arrest by the STB, the Czech secret police.The interview starts as we talk about the level of censorship in Czechoslovakia before the Prague Spring.Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jun 30, 2018 • 1h 26min

Mark - A US Combat Engineer in Cold War West Germany (16)

Today we’re talking to Mark Valley, host of the Livedrop espionage podcast.  Mark served with the US army as a combat engineer in West Germany and later with the Berlin Brigade.  His story gives you an eyewitness account of service in both locations, but also gives some insight into the training, tactics and dilemmas of service in the army. I am delighted and honoured to welcome Mark Valley. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jun 23, 2018 • 1h 16min

Sabine - An East German Childhood (15)

Today we speak to Sabine who was 13 when the Wall opened.  We hear about her childhood in East Germany and gain great insight into life at the time, the pressures on her family and her first steps into West Berlin.  I found Sabine’s story very personal and moving detailing her experiences as her country disappeared almost overnight casting her family into an uncertain future as the safety net they were used too disappeared with it.  I am delighted to welcome Sabine to Cold War Conversations. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jun 16, 2018 • 58min

The 1968 Prague Spring (14)

In today’s episode we return to Czechoslovakia and one of the most iconic moments of the Cold War – The Prague Spring of 1968.We have with us Lani Seelinger of Socialism Realised which an excellent website and learning environment that uses multimedia content as teaching aids about the communist regimes in Europe. I do recommend you check them out at Socialismrealised.euSome of you will have seen the film of Alexander Dubcek and the adoring crowds as well as the powerful images of the Warsaw Pact invasion. Our chat shows that beneath those images there’s more nuances and I hope you find the episode insightful and entertaining.I am delighted to welcome Lani Seelinger.Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jun 9, 2018 • 1h 17min

A US soldier at Checkpoint Charlie when the Berlin Wall opened (13)

 Michael Rafferty was posted to Berlin in 1988. He served in the 287th Military Police Company at Checkpoint Charlie and was there through to the historic opening of the Berlin Wall qne the removal of the checkpoint in 1990.  I have always been intrigued by a video posted in Youtube filmed in the 1980s by a then young US army soldier documenting his first days in Berlin for his family back at home.  Now I never dreamed that I would find, let alone talk to that soldier, but through the magic of the internet we got in contact and Michael Rafferty agreed to give his first interview in 24 years to Cold War Conversations. His story spans the last days of Checkpoint Charlie, from when the border was the heavily fortified barrier familiar to us from those spy films to the opening of the wall and the unification of Germany.  I am delighted and honoured to welcome Michael Rafferty. Episode notes here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode13/Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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
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Jun 2, 2018 • 1h 11min

My Stasi file is as thick as a phone book (12)

We’re chatting with Mark Reeder a musician and music producer who has been involved in the Berlin and international music scene since 1978, starting as Factory Records German representative from 1978-1983.Through contacts in the GDR he put on several secret punk gigs behind the Iron Curtain and his Stasi file is described as “as thick as a phone book”. He is however, denied access to the full file as it remains in the possession of the German Federal Intelligence Service...He is also the founder and owner of the first East German electronic dance music label Masterminded For Success “MFS” which he started in 1990, after being the only and last Westerner to make an album in communist East Germany which was “Torture” by Die Vision in 1989.His is a very interesting and unusual account with some great stories including how he smuggled a Volksarmee uniform across the Berlin Wall and the unusual currency needed to get your phone fixed.Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPodFacebook 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

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