In Episode 9 we travel to “the Eldorado of spies”, “the Paris of the Middle East”, “the Vienna of the Cold War”. Where is that? Dr. Przemysław Gasztold from War Studies University in Warsaw shares surprising stories about Polish military officers and their spying abilities. How can guns help you make friends and how can one party at the Czechoslovak embassy help you turn a decade of failure into a decade of success?

Listen to a fascinating story of the eastern bloc country of Poland and its endeavours in the Middle East, setting up and operating a spying hub in the Eldorado of spies, Beirut.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more!

One way to support us is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

Why would a country risk a conflict and the death of its soldiers to help out “for free” a distant, seemingly unrelated country half a continent away? The story of Morocco and Congo during the Cold War era is very different from what we’ve heard on the podcast so far. Dr. Farid Boussaid from the University of Amsterdam draws the curtains on personal relationships among leaders and how much they affect national and international affairs and the course of history.

Episode 8 has it all: a dictator who loves luxury and good PR, secret clubs, relentless rebels and a lot of fighting with surprising victories and unlikely allies.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more!

One way to support us is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

This podcast is produced independently by: Katarina Urban Richterova

The Freeman telegram was a “fake news” story of the 1960’s. There were different ways to approach it, either let it quietly go away or protest and send a clear message of discontent. Which is better? How are such decisions made and what or who are the underestimated elements in such decisions?

Listen to this Bonus episode.

For the full story of the Freeman telegram and the "fake news" war in Cold War India listen to Episode 7.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more!

One way to support us is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

There were times when the Soviets and the Western countries did not use “fake news” often. But there were also times when they attacked each other with "fake news" almost constantly. How did this work and who were they trying to “reach”? Listen to this Bonus episode.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more!

One way to support us is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

Today, ‘fake news’ has become a buzzword, causally used by politicians, journalists and talk-show hosts. But the modern concept of ‘fake news’ is no novelty, it’s been around for at least a century. And the Soviets have always been good at it.

In this episode we head over to India and zoom in on ‘fake news’ of the 1960’s. As the country becomes an ideological Cold War battlefield, falsifications and forgeries are used as weapons to win over supporters and attack enemies. What did ‘fake news’ look like then? Who produced it? And was it just the Soviets or did the other camp use ‘black propaganda’ as well?

Dr. Paul McGarr - Associate Professor in US Foreign Policy at the University of Nottingham - explains how ‘fake news’ was created, how effective it was in the Cold War battles, and uncovers the human stories behind these forgeries.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more!

One way to support us is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

This podcast is produced independently by: Katarina Urban Richterova

Martin Grossheim was the second student from West Germany to ever study Vietnamese in Vietnam. It was in the year 1987. Back then roaming around in the country’s Cold war past was not possible. Although a lot has changed over the last 15 years, Vietnam is still not an all-access granting type of country.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more!

One way to support us is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

“Are you a spy?” Martin Grossheim, a student from Western Germany was asked on the streets of Hanoi in 1987. Why was this a legitimate question in Vietnam and how does it all come back to the Cold War struggle for dominance? In Episode 6 we talk about the biggest armed conflict of the Cold war era, the Vietnam war. How did the socialist states help North Vietnam? What was the chain of assistance and how come the Soviet, East German and Vietnamese secret services operated identically?

Dr. Martin Grossheim from Seoul National University explains how Vietnam went from nothing to a spy-manic country, why everyone who spoke a foreign language was suspicious and why the country kept their distance even from the brotherly Soviet bloc.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more! One way to do so is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

This podcast is produced independently by: Katarina Urban Richterova

In Episode 5 we spoke a lot about the newly independent Tanzania, one of the biggest “shoppers”  for assistance and allies making friends of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Israel, the GDR, China and even Canada. A strange mix that should have helped Tanzania (or in fact Tanganyika) preserve its non-aligned status in the Cold war era.

In this bonus Dr. Thomas Maguire explains what kind of a presence Britain wanted to maintain in Tanganyika and whether it succeeded and what the archives suggest Tanganyika’s Prime Minister Julius Nyerere told the US ambassador about the kind of military he needs.

photo: Last Report of MI5 Security Liaison Officer Ronnie Jacobsen, April 1964, DO185-49, TNA

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more! One way to do so is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

A wave of independence swept across Africa in the early 1960s - triggering not only freedom-induced euphoria, but also considerable instability. What happens when you reclaim power from a colonial power and find that there is little to no security and intelligence infrastructure in place? And how does a newly-independent state build its security apparatus almost from scratch?

In Episode 5, Dr. Thomas Maguire looks at how the country known today as Tanzania manically shopped around for new allies, money and expertise shortly after gaining independence. And how its leaders soon discovered that 'aid' from countries such as Britain, Israel, China or Moscow was by no means provided for free.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more! One way to do so is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

This podcast is produced independently by: Katarina Urban Richterova

A year is a long time. You can start a friendship, become BFFs and end it – all in a matter of one year. How? Listen to Episode 4 in which we dissect the very unlikely and until now undisclosed friendship between Cuba and Czechoslovakia during the Cold War.

Dr. Jan Koura – Assistant professor at the World History department at Charles University in Prague explains that there was the obvious conflict between the East and the West, but also a less visible and unexpected competition among countries from the same Cold War camp.

The Secret Struggle won a Lovie Award and we are officially the Best Podcast in Science and Education in Europe!

If you like our podcast and the work that we do – support us, so that we can do even more! One way to do so is through Patreon.com – under the name The Secret Struggle for Cold War Dominance. Thanks!

This podcast is produced independently by: Katarina Urban Richterova

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