Secret Service In The Cold War

The Second World War had been won, but relationships between the Western allies and the Soviet Union were becoming increasingly strained, as the nuclear arms race made world peace precarious. It was vital that Britain knew the Soviets' intentions and military capabilities, both offensive and defensive. As a Military Attaché in Sofia, and Commandant of an Intelligence Centre in the Balkans, it was SIS officer Lieutenant Colonel John Sanderson's job to find out.Sanderson handled agents who operated secretly behind the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War and organised hidden arms depots for stay-behind agents in case of a Red Army invasion. Based on Sanderson's letters and personal accounts of his time with MI4 and MI6, we learn how he was sent to observe sessions of the Paris UNO Security Council in 1948 and to recruit émigrés for infiltration behind the Iron Curtain, into Communist Bulgaria. Fluent in French and Bulgarian, in 1949 Captain Sanderson was posted to Sofia as a Press Attaché with diplomatic immunity, reporting on the Communist show trials. Lieutenant Colonel Sanderson returned there twelve years later as the Military, Naval and Air Attaché. In 1961, having been tasked by London with photographing the latest MIG fighter, he was driven at night to Sofia airport's perimeter by a CIA colleague. Closely followed by the Bulgarian secret police, he parachute-rolled, unobserved, out of the car with his camera. Arrested at daylight, he escaped to the border and drove across Europe, still pursued by the ruthless Bulgarian Security Services.John Sanderson's early service life was equally challenging, from helping defend Britain's coastline in 1940, picking up shot-down pilots around Dover on a motorbike during the Battle of Britain, to fighting the Japanese in the Burmese and Indian jungles, before returning to London to join the Secret Intelligence Services. In parallel with Sanderson's SIS career, living with Russian émigrés in Paris, posted to SIS headquarters in the Berlin Olympic stadium, and later working together in the Intelligence Division of NATO headquarters Paris during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was his SIS friend RAF Squadron Leader John Aldwinckle, a veteran of SOE wartime operations in Halifax bombers. All Aldwinckle's agents were betrayed by the traitor George Blake, as were all Sanderson's by Kim Philby.In John Sanderson's biography we get the detailed inside story of the Berlin Air Lift, the Suez Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. We see the results of Philby and Blake's treachery and the effects which the courageous actions of the two 'Olegs', the Russian Colonels Penkovsky and Gordievsky, had on the international politics of Khrushchev, Kennedy, Gorbachev, Thatcher and Reagan - and the consequences their decisions had for the course of world history.For over thirty years, John Sanderson worked for the British Secret Services - with his last mission, aged 74, as exciting as his first, being helicoptered into Sarajevo with an SAS team at the height of the Balkan War.

This book presents an overview about the activities of intelligence services and their role during the Cold War period. Contributions from a wide range of disciplines - by historians, political scientists, journalists, legal experts, former officers of secret services, and former military men from various countries around the world - discuss the services in the US, Germany, Korea, the Caribbean Sea, the Baltic, Russia, and Europe, including the famous US counter-intelligence Venona project. (Series: Politics and Modern History / Politik und Moderne Geschichte - Vol. 18)

“An interesting, well-documented overview of Cold War espionage in Berlin” including photographs (Studies in Intelligence). For almost half a century, the hottest front in the Cold War ran through Berlin. From summer 1945 until 1990, the secret services of NATO and the Warsaw Pact fought an ongoing duel in the dark. Throughout the Cold War, espionage was part of everyday life in both East and West Berlin, with German spies playing a crucial part of operations on both sides: Erich Mielke’s Stasi and Reinhard Gehlen’s Federal Intelligence Service, for example. The construction of the wall in 1961 changed the political situation and the environment for espionage—the invisible front was now concreted and unmistakable. But the fundamentals had not changed: Berlin was and would remain the capital of spies until the fall of the Berlin Wall, a fact that makes it all the more surprising that there are hardly any books about the work of the secret services in Berlin during the Cold War. Now in this compelling volume, journalist Sven Felix Kellerhoff and historian Bernd von Kostka describe the spectacular successes and failures of the various secret services based in the city. “Engaging and useful.” —Journal of Military History

From the espionage files, an American soldier is nearly recruited in a downtown bar to be a spy and a First Sergeant is lured by sex to be an unknowing participant in spying. Behind-the-lines images are historic and intriguing. See photographs of a French officer and a Soviet officer relaxing in the East German woods in a temporary unofficial peace; 'James Bond' type cars with their light tricks and their ability to leave their Stasi shadows 'wheel spinning' in the snow will amaze readers. A Russian translator for the presidential hotline recounts a story about having to lock his doors in the Pentagon, separating himself and his sergeant from the Pentagon Generals when a message comes in from the Soviets. When he called the White House to relay the message to the President and stood by for a possible reply to the Soviet Chairman, he stopped working for the Generals and started working solely for the President.

The action-packed biography of a British intelligence officer who took part in major political events of the 20th Century before and during the Cold War. World War II had been won, but relationships between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union were weakening as the nuclear arms race made world peace precarious. Britain needed to know the Soviets’ intentions and military capabilities. A Secret Intelligence Service officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Sanderson had the job of finding out. This is his story. Based on Sanderson’s letters and personal accounts of his time with MI4 and MI6, this biography details his handling of secret agents behind the Iron Curtain at the height of the Cold War and organization of hidden arms depots. He observed the Paris UNO Security Council in 1948 and recruited émigrés for infiltration into Communist Bulgaria. He also reported on the Communist show trials in Sofia in 1949. Twelve years later, London tasked him to photograph the latest MIG fighter with the help of a CIA colleague. His getaway wasn’t easy . . . Sanderson’s early service life was equally challenging, from defending Britain’s coastline in 1940, picking up downed pilots during the Battle of Britain, to fighting Japanese forces in Asian jungles, before returning to London to join the Secret Intelligence Services. Get the inside story on events like the Berlin Air Lift, the Suez Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Experience Kim Philby and George Blake’s treachery and the effects the two “Olegs,” the Russian Colonels Penkovsky and Gordievsky, had on the international politics of Khrushchev, Kennedy, Gorbachev, Thatcher, and Reagan—and the course of world history.

In recent years the importance of Signals Intelligence (Sigint) has become more prominent, especially the capabilities of reading and deciphering diplomatic, military and commercial communications of other nations. This work reveals the role of intercepting messages during the Cold War.

This work investigates the connection between intelligence history, domestic policy, military history and foreign relations in a time of increasing bureaucratization of the modern state. The issues of globalization of foreign relations and the development of modern communication are also discussed.

In this highly readable history, a noted author reveals startling new information about the relationship between Britain and the US during the Cold War: the extent of the US and British covert operation successes--notably in Iran and Guatemala--as well as many costly debacles and follies. 32 photos.

VENONA was one of the most intensely secret and long-term projects of the Cold War. Spanning three decades, VENONA provided Western counter-intelligence agents with details on how and who the Soviet Union recruited as counter agents (moles) across the globe. It was VENONA that provided evidence against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Alger Hiss, Klaus Fuchs, and others. Yet, so secret was VENONA that the project itself was never mentioned even at the trials of those indicted by its discoveries.

This fascinating exploration of secret service and intelligence agencies throughout the world details the new roles they have found for themselves as they target rogue states, terrorism, and the drug war. It shows how ultramodern technologies have increased their power to spy abroad and eavesdrop at home. It also exposes the unsolved contradiction between the world of these secretive, unaccountable agencies and the requirements of a free, democratic society.