Cold War Conversations

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/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

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/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

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.eu

Some 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/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

 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 and the removal of the checkpoint in 1990. 

 I have always been intrigued by a video posted on YouTube filmed in the 1980s by a 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 & extras here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode13/

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

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/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

Today we’re covering a British Cold War civil defence unit called the Royal Observer Corps.

We’re talking to Alistair McCann who has preserved a Royal Observer Corps monitoring post as a museum in Northern Ireland.

We talk about the museum, the difficulties of the Northern Ireland Royal Observer Corps during “The Troubles” and what the reality would have been for these men and women should the Cold War have turned hot. 

I hope you find our conversation as interesting as I did. We welcome Alistair McCann.

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

Jeremy Poynton was a 16 year old school boy in 1968 when he embarked on a memorable trip by road from Leningrad to Odessa.

He vividly describes a Soviet Union still struggling with poverty and a diverse range of peoples from city dwellers to remote Chechen villagers.

It’s a unique story as Jeremy details his experiences and the sights of a 1960s Soviet Union just as the Prague Spring was being suppressed.

I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did, we welcome Jeremy Poynton.

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

Mark Baker is an independent journalist and travel writer who’s lived in Central Europe for more than two decades. 

 I heartily recommend his travel website www.markbakerprague.com which is an eclectic mix of stories about his adopted hometown of Prague and stories from when Central Europe was the “Eastern bloc” and he was a full-time journalist trying his best to cover it. 

 Mark tells an intriguing and compelling story and I urge you to listen right to the end. I hope you enjoy our chat and I welcome Mark Baker. (the drawing is by Stewart K Moore and is a representation of Mark’s Czechoslovak fixer during the 1980s) 

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

Welcome to Episode 8 of Cold War Conversations where we talk about the armoured fighting vehicles of the Warsaw Pact. 

 Russell Phillips has written several books on Warsaw Pact military equipment and our conversation is an interesting exchange covering the evolution in design, tactics and the deployment of Warsaw Pact armoured forces should the Cold War have turned hot. 

 It also covers a slightly off topic conversation about saunas and swimming pools in Soviet submarines and Frankie Goes to Hollywood! 

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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

We speak with David Young who has written the Stasi Child - Karin Müller series of crime thrillers set in East Germany in the mid 1970s.

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook 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