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Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War Overview

This book is the definitive insiders' account of the espionage warfare in Berlin from 1945 to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. In an unprecedented collaboration, CIA and KGB intelligence veterans reveal previously untold stories of the Berlin tunnel, critical moments of the Berlin crisis, clandestine initiatives, betrayals, and defections to provide the first comprehensive and accurate history of the Cold War battles waged in Berlin. "Rarely if ever before has such a complete and authoritative insiders' account of the game of espionage ever been put into a single volume."-Richard Bernstein, New York Times "Battleground Berlin is a captivating book, rich in factual material. It can be recommended not only to specialists in intelligence and foreign policy, but to anyone who is interested in the details of the history of the Cold War."-Oleg Gordievsky, Times Literary Supplement "A fascinating and important new account . . . which retells in detail, much of it new, the ways in which Soviet and American intelligence services fought their secret, bloodless war."-Thomas Powers, New York Review of Books "A classic of modern intelligence literature drawn from archives and personal recollections. . . . Moles, double-agents, Soviet antisemitic disinformation campaigns, dead drops, recruitments-the stuff that makes good spy novels, with the welcome blessing of being factual. If you read only one intelligence book this season, make it this one."-Joseph Goulden, Washington Times

Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War Specifications

Battleground Berlin is the product of an unprecedented collaboration between two veteran intelligence officers--one with the CIA, the other with the KGB--who worked on opposite sides in postwar Berlin. With the help of journalist George Bailey, they have told what will likely stand as the definitive account of those remarkable years. The KGB had the advantage of existing, in one form or another, since the Russian Revolution, while the CIA was a fledgling agency. But KGB agents and analysts were under chronic pressure to twist their intelligence reports for political reasons, which evened the scales somewhat.

Armed with information from numerous interviews, access to previously secret documents (many reproduced in the book), extensive research, and their own recollections, the authors roam the existing Cold War literature, correcting lies and false conclusions, putting rumors to rest, and exposing ignorance--in short, setting the record straight. They provide definitive accounts of many key episodes, including the double defection of Otto John, the head of West German counterespionage, and the famous tunnel incident of 1955-56, in which an American tunnel into the Soviet sector was exposed by a highly placed informant and then "discovered" in an elaborate ploy to protect the agent. Battleground Berlin is a remarkable amalgam. It is a fascinating, sometimes gripping spy story, complete with safe houses, forged identities, double agents, and street-corner rendezvous; it is also a scrupulously researched piece of historical scholarship and analysis.

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