»Operation Gold« as the project was called was betrayed by a KGB double Agent who worked for the MI6 and the Soviets later »discovered« the operation. ![]() ![]() The early period also saw the development of more sophisticated methods of spying – in the mid-1950s, the American and British intelligence services tunneled 450 metres underneath East Berlin and tapped into important telephone wires. Some agents even managed to convince the refugees, so recently arrived from the East, to return to the GDR and spy for them there. Seeking to take advantage of the relative ease with which people could cross from East to West and back again, the world’s agents came to evaluate what in the 1950s provided the best source of intelligence: people.Įast Germans escaping to the West via the open Berlin border were subject to close interrogation about life in their former homeland, whilst staying in emergency accommodation centers such as Berlin Marienfelde. Divided between the Soviets and the leading NATO powers, Berlin brought the representatives of the two blocs into immediate contact like nowhere else.The establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1949 did little to reduce the tensions, merely adding two more players to the game. ![]() As the frontier of the Cold War after 1945, where East met West, Berlin soon acquired a reputation as the capital city of international espionage.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |