Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War [Paperback]

Mr. David E. Murphy (Author), Mr. Sergei A. Kondrashev (Author), Mr. George Bailey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0300078714 | ISBN-13: 978-0300078718

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A troika of erstwhile adversaries team up to deliver an absorbing and authoritative inside view of how American and Soviet- bloc intelligence agencies plied their offbeat trade in divided Berlin during the first 15 years of the Cold War. Drawing on newly available archival material and their own experiences, Murphy (a sometime chief of the CIA's Berlin station), Kondrashev (who headed the KGB's German Section), and Bailey (a former director of Radio Liberty) offer an essentially chronological account of who was spying on whom in Berlin and to what avail, from V-E Day through the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Before getting down to business, however, they provide brief rundowns on the major services, including the fledgling CIA, the thoroughly professional KGB, and East Germany's Stasi. Having set the scene, the authors recount the facts behind convulsive events that produced headlines throughout the world. Cases in point range from the 1953 uprisings in the German Democratic Republic, the tunnel the CIA dug to eavesdrop on supposedly secure phone conversations originating in the Eastern Sector, the cover- organization games played by both sides, counterintelligence as well as disinformation efforts and propaganda campaigns (e.g., Nikita Khrushchev's threat to sign a separate peace agreement with the GDR), and, of course, the Wall. Covered as well are the stories of high-profile defectors (Pyotr Popov, Otto John, et al.), interservice rivalries (notably, between the KGB and the Stasi). Both Moscow and Washington, the authors point out, ignored some crucial, first-rate intelligence gathered by their operatives in the field. Eye-opening detail on cloak-and-dagger operations in a conquered capital city that once threatened to alter the balance of world power and breach the world's hard-won peace. (illustrations, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 584 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (April 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300078714
• ISBN-13: 978-0300078718
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Setting the Record Straight, September 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War (Hardcover)

This is a historic book, which anyone interested
in the history and practice of espionage will
appreciate. LeCarre it is not; while there is
some bit of cloak and dagger (Murphy relates the story of the KGB attempting to capture him in a Vienna) for the most part the book is a set of
essays addressing the questions
of what each side did and knew. The strength of
the book comes from the first hand of Murphy and
Kondrashev as station chiefs in Berlin of the
CIA and KGB respectively, and from the fact that
Murphy and Kondrashev had unprecedented access to
CIA and KGB files to document their conclusions.

These essays are loosely organized and the chronology is often repetitive: in the chronology of events, and in the apparent structure of Murphy and Kondrashev writing
contrasting points of view sounds good in theory
but repetitive in practice: the book does not have the clear argumentative flow that a book by a single author would have, and it lacks clear headings identifying section author.

Last week, Murphy and Kondrashev were in New York
at a panel discussion sponsored by the Harriman
Institute and the Yale University Press, held at
the Yale Club. The questions from the audience
were appalling, but there were two points made
on the panel that might be of interest here.

The first concerns a claim made by the book that
in looking into the effects of intelligence on
the leaders consuming it, there was a pattern:
the CIA had limited resources and limited penetration of the east; this meant that information was sketchy; however, analysis was thorough and objective and well-considered by the Western leaders. In contrast, the KGB had spectacular assets: high level penetration of French and British intelligence that produced immediate and insight into the Western positions. However, as the Soviet intelligence moved up the chain toward Stalin, fear and organizational
dynamics led the analysts to spin the data to suit Stalin preconceptions and socialist ideology.
The KGB intelligence, in other words, was ideologically pure but as a consequence it was
misleading. This led Stalin, for example,
to believe that the Western countries could be budged from Berlin by the blockade, even when Western leaders had agreed among themselves that they would not be budged.

At the Press panel, this book assertion was challenged: the Historian on the panel claimed that there was evidence in the book that the
CIA intelligence was just as ideologically
driven. Little evidence was given to support this challenge, but as you read the book, you might keep your eyes open for it.

The second point raised at the panel was to
highlight one of the book's most novel claims:
that 1) the KGB knew about the Berlin tunnel
even before it had been built and 2) even so,
they considered the source of their knowledge
-- George Blake, a mole in british intelligence
-- so precious an asset that they couldn't risk
his discovery by putting disinformation onto
the line. At the panel, Kondrashev asserted
that he knew this to be so, because he was
Blake's case officer, and he knew how limited
was the distribution of the knowledge within
the KGB.

The book examines these assertions effectively;
the details of this analysis (which went beyond
the simple rehearsed denial by Kondrashev at the
panel) include examination of disinformation
that continued after the discovery of the tunnell,
and a detailed inventory of the information that
the west gained by tapping the soviet telephones
through the tunnel.

I'd enjoy chatting about the book more if you read it; feel free to email me.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative and detailed, March 28, 2000

By 

Paul Cooke - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War (Paperback)

This is the first time a thorough review of post war Berlin intelligence activities has been published. For the professional this is a good compilation of operations (collection, defection, analysis, etc.). For the novice the book is a difficult read - chock full of details but not written in captivating language. Students of history need to add this to their collection of books to keep and use as reference.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More fascinating than Le Carre or Ludlum, July 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War (Hardcover)

Only the collapse of the Soviet Union could have opened a "window" in history which would allow two men, adversaries in the most arctic period of the Cold War, to tell the full story of what really went on in the epicenter of intelligence warfare, divided Berlin. Even more extraordinary is that David Murphy and Sergei Kondraschev were able, thirty years after they served leading roles in this clash of armies of the night, to break down residual barriers of this conflict and collaborate on this book. They supplement first-hand accounts with documents and interviews that complete an unparalleled picture of the real world on which novels like THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD andFUNERAL IN BERLIN were based. This brilliant account is not merely more compelling than any novel; it is more compelling than any novel CAN be