Military Liaison Missions in Germany During the Cold War

Before getting too close to the wrong guard of a new model Soviet tank in March of 1985, US Major Arthur D. Nicholson was one of the most daring and successful Military Liaison Officers around town, this town being none other than good old West-Berlin. And technically speaking, he actually worked at the United States Military Mission in Potsdam, located right in the heart of communist East Germany. In other words, Nicholson was very good at spying. But something went wrong that day in Ludwigslust. Later on it came out that an American double agent had tipped off the Soviets concerning Nicholson's earlier adventures and, although all the facts concerning the matter have never been cleared up completely, a Soviet guard who discovered him taking photos panicked and fired and Major Nicholson bled to death while Soviet soldiers forbade his driver to come to his assistance.

These Military Liaison Missions or MLMs were originally established with the intention of avoiding such "misunderstandings" and keeping the four victorious Allied victors on the same sheet of music during their occupation of Germany immediately following World War II (Article II of the London Accord, November 14, 1944). The MLMs went into operation in 1946 and 1947, with 31 British, 18 French and 14 American personnel taking up residence in three spacious Potsdam villas. The Soviets took up shop in Frankfurt, Baden-Baden and Bad Salzuflen in West Germany. All of these soldiers were allowed to move freely, accept in restricted military zones, of course, and although they were originally supposed to enforce the guidelines set out in the Potsdam Accords of 1945, this quickly changed. Once the Berlin Airlift started and the Cold War got colder, and up until their final closure in 1990, these missions transformed into active centers for military espionage on both sides of the Iron Curtain. And literally tons of information was gathered, in both directions, during their relatively short, forty-year history.