Bandit Country - The IRA and South Armagh (472)
During the Cold War, British soldiers fought a Provisional IRA insurgency in Northern Ireland. Probably the toughest location was South Arma...
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Cold War Conversations
Real stories of the Cold War told by those that were there. We're capturing the unknown stories of the Cold War before they are lost...
Episodes
20 of 473 episodes
A Czech Border Guard’s Daring Escape to the West (471)
What happens when the man guarding the Iron Curtain decides to escape through it himself? In 1975, Jiří Barteček was a Czechoslovak border g...
Twenty-Six Years Apart: A Family Reunited Behind the Iron Curtain (470)
For twenty-six years, war, exile and the Iron Curtain kept one Polish family apart. Torn from his homeland and sent into Stalin’s labour cam...
Announcing Cold War Conversations History Tours
I’m delighted to tell you about Cold War Conversations History Tours I'm exploring the idea of hosting a Cold War history tour via a special...
Between Two Air Forces: From East German Officer to German Captain (469)
After German reunification, former East German Air Force officer Roland faced an extraordinary transformation: joining the military alliance...
MiGs, Helicopters and Ideology: Life as an East German Air Force Officer (468)
What did it mean to train as an officer in the East German Air Force, where technical skill, military discipline and socialist ideology were...
Growing Up Grey: Childhood in Cold War Romania (467)
Romania in the 1980s was a country of empty shops, power cuts, rationing and fear—but for one little girl it was also home. In this episode,...
Defection, Spies and the Shadow of Georgi Markov (466)
In 1986, Oggy Boytchev made a split-second decision that would change his life forever. Sent to Egypt by a Bulgarian shipping company, he se...
My Father - The Enemy of the People: A Bulgarian Family’s Cold War Story (465)
Oggy Boytchev is a former BBC journalist with more than three decades of experience reporting from conflict zones across the Middle East, th...
Face to Face with the Srebrenica War Criminals (464)
Richard Lyntton’s life has taken him from Cold War Moscow to the deserts of the Gulf War and the shattered streets of Sarajevo. In this powe...
Inside a Cold War USAF Fighter Squadron (463)
Step behind the wire of one of NATO’s most elite tactical fighter squadrons—the 10th Tactical Fighter Squadron—during the tense final years...
The Cambridge Five - new files reveal untold stories (462)
Antonia Senior’s new book, "Stalin’s Apostles", challenges what you may have believed about the Cambridge Five, a group of British citizens...
Malta & West Germany - Memories of an RAF Childhood Abroad (461)
Mark Thompson shares his captivating journey as the child of Royal Air Force personnel during the Cold War. From the moment his parents met...
Cold War Football: A History in Ten Matches (460)
The Cold War was a huge battle for hearts and minds — a true “people’s war.” But where did the “people’s game” fit into it? In their new boo...
CIA and MI6 Covert Action in Communist Albania at the Dawn of the Cold War (459)
In June 1949, the US and British governments secretly agreed to mount a joint covert action operation to overthrow the communist government...
On the edge of war: A V-Force pilot during the Cuban Missile Crisis (458)
I had the honour of speaking with Tony Dobbie, a former RAF V- Force bomber pilot who joined the RAF in 1960. Tony shares amazing anecdotes...
Conscripted to a West German Nuclear Missile Unit (457)
Kris is a former conscript in the West German Bundeswehr during the Cold War. He shares his experiences from the moment he received his cons...
Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Cold War Disinformation Front Line (456)
I delve into the fascinating world of Cold War propaganda with historian Rory Cormac, author of a new book “Fakers - 'A Top Secret Tale of P...
30 Miles from the North Korean Border - A US Military Childhood (455)
Flynn describes life as a US military child just 30 miles from the North Korean Border during the 1970s. The political landscape of the time...
The JFK Assassination: The human narratives behind one of history's most scrutinised events (454)
Dallas, 22 November 1963. The main event is supposed to be on the appropriately named Main Street. News footage shows office workers leaning...