Betrayal in Berlin

The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation

The astonishing true story of the Berlin Tunnel, one of the West’s greatest espionage operations of the Cold War—and the dangerous Soviet mole who betrayed it.

Its code name was “Operation Gold,” a wildly audacious CIA plan to construct a clandestine tunnel into East Berlin to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military telecommunication lines. The tunnel, crossing the border between the American and Soviet sectors, would have to be 1,500 feet (the length of the Empire State Building) with state-of-the-art equipment, built and operated literally under the feet of their Cold War adversaries. Success would provide the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service access to a vast treasure of intelligence. Exposure might spark a dangerous confrontation with the Soviets. Yet as the Allies were burrowing into the German soil, a traitor, code-named Agent Diamond by his Soviet handlers, was burrowing into the operation itself. . .

Betrayal in Berlin is Steve Vogel’s heart pounding account of the operation. He vividly recreates post-war Berlin, a scarred, shadowy snake pit with thousands of spies and innumerable cover stories. It is also the most vivid account of George Blake, perhaps the most damaging mole of the Cold War. Drawing upon years of archival research, secret documents, and rare interviews with Blake himself, Vogel has crafted a true-life spy story as thrilling as the novels of John le Carré and Len Deighton.

Essential Cold War History

I found this story interesting in two respects. The first is the technical story behind the Berlin Tunnel and the far reaching implications it had during the cold war. The second part, equally fascinating was the story of how gullible pepole can be with the failed ideology of communism when you get to see it in practice. This was a well researched book and performance.

Behind the Scenes of the Cold War

As a young child, I found my world turned upside down as the US Government bought up farm land in my hometown to install a SAC Air Force Base. In second grade I was forced to walk almost a mile to school as the school population exploded overnight and all second graders were moved to the local Grange Hall. I remember that it was a very cold winter. Even at the age of eight, I was acutely aware of the Russian threat, and duck a cover was a very real drill. This book gave me facts that filled in some of the world events behind the adjustments of my very young life in rural America. The story was well told and the characters were real. I enjoyed the book.

Great

Takes a few chapters longer than other books of this category to get invested in but once it gets going its strong through the end.

The author does a better job than most other history writers to keep the reader engaged with the characters and by the epilogue I actually found myself slightly emotional reading how some of their lives had changed in their old age.

Excellent story of Cold War espionage

Although the story seems to try and make the traitor George Blake a sympathetic person, the fact is he was a traitor. This is a good story and overview of early Cold War treachery culminating in the betrayal of both programs and people as well as countries

good cold War betrayal story, focusing on spies

good story, recommend for those wanting to learn about espionage and the intelligence community. not really a "we won" story but more of a this guy totally compromised our tunnel effort