September 4, 1950, Eisenhower’s Nationwide Radio Appeal for the First Crusade for Freedom ©

U.S. Army General and future U.S. President 
Dwight D. Eisenhower passionately called for an American Crusade for Freedom, in a nationwide radio broadcast, covered by the four major radio networks, from Denver, Colorado, on September 4, 1950: 

I speak tonight about the Crusade For Freedom. 

This Crusade is a campaign sponsored by private American citizens to fight the big lie with the big truth. It is a program that has been hailed by President Truman, and others, as an essential step in getting the case for freedom heard by the world's multitudes. 

Powerful Communist radio stations incessantly tell the world that we Americans are physically soft and morally corrupt; that we are disunited and confused; that we are selfish and cowardly; that we have nothing to offer the world but imperialism and exploitation. 

To combat these evil broadcasts the government has established a radio program called the Voice of America, which has brilliantly served the cause of freedom, but the Communist stations overpower it and outflank it with daily coverage that neglects no wavelength or dialect, no prejudice or local aspiration. Weaving a fantastic pattern of lies and twisted fact, they confound the listener into believing that we are warmongers, that America invaded North Korea, that Russia invented the airplane, that the Soviets, unaided won World War II; and that the secret police and slave camps of Communism offer humanity brighter hope than do self-government and free enterprise. 

We need powerful radio stations abroad, operated without government restrictions, to tell in a vivid and convincing form about the decency and essential fairness of democracy These stations must tell of our aspirations for peace, our hatred of war, our support of the United Nations and our constant readiness to cooperate with any and all who have these same desires 

One such private station Radio Free Europe —is now in operation in Western Germany. It daily brings a message of hope and encouragement to a small part of the European masses. 

Freedom Scroll 

In this broadcast, Eisenhower called on all Americans to sign the “Freedom Scroll,” with a “Declaration of Freedom,” which read: 

I believe in the sacredness and dignity of the individual.

I believe that all men derive the right to freedom equally from God.

I pledge to resist aggression and tyranny wherever they appear on earth.

I am proud to enlist in the Crusade for Freedom.

I am proud to help make the freedom Bell possible, to be a signer of this Declaration of Freedom, to have my name included as a permanent part of the Freedom Shrine in Berlin, and to join with the millions of men and women throughout the world who hold the cause of freedom sacred. 

Ike's September 4, 1950, address is an archetypal example of Cold War discourse inasmuch as it features: 

·      stark polarizations (truth vs. lies, peace vs. war, democracy vs. communism, liberty vs. slavery, death vs. life); 

·      fear appeals (secret police, slave camps, blackout, executed, blank page in history, cold-blooded betrayal); 

·      biblical allusions (birthright, venom, hissing, faith, God, devilish, bondage, sacrifice, doctrine); 

·      images of death (dying, poison, mastery of life and soul, lose American birthright, mortal fear); 

·      use of ultimate terms (freedom, God, democracy, progress, liberty, truth); 

·      savagery of the enemy (hissing, hating tirade, godless depravity, aggression and tyranny, predatory military force, ruthless men); 

·      righteousness of America (freedom, readiness to cooperate, opportunity, human happiness, hope, encouragement, peaceful intent, decent motives, decency and essential fairness); 

·      fragility of liberty (take up arms in defense of liberty, defense of freedom, destroy free government, destroy our system, destroy human liberty, overpower it and outflank it, defense of our way of life, guard it with vigilance and defend it with fortitude and faith).

Source: Martin J. Medhurst, “Eisenhower and the Crusade for Freedom: the rhetorical Origins of a Cold War Campaign,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4, 1997.

For more information about the Crusade for Freedom, Freedom Scrolls, and Eisenhower's support, see:

Operation STONE (Akce Kámen): The Tragic Theater of Communism ©

On August 31, 1951, Radio Free Europe's Czechoslovak broadcast service, the "Voice of Free Czechoslovakia," aired a radio drama in the hard-hitting series entitled "All This We Know." This program series identified secret police officers, agents, agent-provocateurs, blackmailers, informers, and “quislings" in countries behind the Iron Curtain. This particular program identified a "Dr. Evzen" and went into details of a Czechoslovak intelligence service (StB -- Státní bezpečnost) scheme known as Operation STONE (Akce Kámen). It used agent provocateurs to arrest, try, imprison, or execute potential escapees from Czechoslovakia and steal anything of "wealth" from the victims. STONE referred to the border markers used to identify the German-Czech border.

The criminal scheme involved a false German-Czechoslovak border, according to an official U.S. State Department protest note on June 15, 1948, to Czechoslovakia:  

 

For approximately four weeks, representatives of the Czechoslovak State Security Police (S.N.B.), dressed in full uniform with insignia of officers of the United States Army, have been conducting an office in a house on Czechoslovak territory in the western outskirts of the village of Vseruby. In the conduct of their business, these representatives are seated behind a desk on which there is conspicuously displayed a bottle of American whiskey, packages of American cigarettes, and a small American flag. On the wall behind their desk is a large American flag and pictures of Presidents Truman and Roosevelt. 

 

These S.N.B. representatives, dressed in uniforms of the United States Army, are assisted by other S.N.B. representatives who are dressed in uniforms of the German border police. According to factual evidence in possession of the Government of the United States, the purpose of this office, as well as of the fraudulent misuse of the uniform of the Army of the United States and of the German border police, as well as the display of the American flag and pictures of the former and present presidents of the United States, is to supplement other measures taken by the Czechoslovak Government to prevent illegal departures from Czechoslovakia.  

            

The Czechoslovak government not only denied the allegations but also "hinted that the Americans were somewhat paranoid." Moreover, “Most minute investigation in Vseruby has failed to find the smallest trace or suspicion of misuse of American insignia or portraits of US statesmen. We maintain that the protest is based on a report of an unreliable informer.“  

 

Researchers into Communist Czechoslovakia crimes have proved that the Americans were not paranoid, and scores of Czechoslovak citizens were victimized.  

 

One variation of how the scheme worked in general: previously identified wealthy persons were approached by agent provocateurs and told they were about to be arrested by the secret police. To avoid this, they should leave Czechoslovakia immediately and take only cash and jewelry. They were driven at night to a "border" with border markings. Believing they were at the German border, the victims would then cross on foot, when they would be met by StB agents acting as smugglers or bribed German border police. From there, the victims would be brought to the house described in the 1948 U.S. protest note. They believed they were then in the care of the American military. 

 

For more information, see Chapter 2 in:

 

 

In English, Dr. Igor Lukes, "KAMEN: A Cold War Dangle Operation with an American Dimension, 1948-1952," Studies in Intelligence Vol. 55, No. 1. 

 

In the Czech language, military historian Dr. Prokop Tomek wrote a detailed article about KAMEN– Adventurer in the Service of Communists (Amon Tomašoff – dobrodruh ve službách komunistů) in SECURITAS IMPERII 12, Sbornik k promlematice, pp. 5 -28,  

 

The most detailed study of the subject can be found in  two books in Czech by Václava Jandečková Václava Jandečková: Kámen: Svědectví hlavního aktéra akce "Falešné hranice" u Všerub na Domažlicku,  Nakladatelství Českého lesa 2014 and Falešné hranice: Akce „Kámen“. Oběti a strůjci nejutajovanějších zločinů StB 1948–1951, 2018. In additions she wrote a detailed article in E English:: “OPERATION “Kámen” – VŠERUBY 1948. New revelations in the case of the fake Czech border to Germany”, Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPPS) VOL.7, NR.1/2013, 49-68. The photograph above taken from her book Kámen.

Finding Francesco Gullino, aka Agent “Piccadilly”-- Updated ©

Francesco Gullino, the prime suspect in the murder of Georgi Markov -- the so-called "Umbrella Murder" -- was found dead in his apartment in Wells, Austria, on August 15, 2021. He had been living in abject poverty. 

In my book Cold War Radio, I go into some detail about how Radio Free Europe (RFE) found Gullino in 1995 in Budapest, Hungary. RFE contacted him for an interview. He asked for time to think about it and then left Hungary without doing the interview.

 

Afterward, there was no trace of him until 2002, when reportedly he was detained on the German or Austrian border with the Czech Republic on suspicion that a painting in his possession was stolen; it was not. He was not charged and again seemed to have disappeared.

 

During the research for the 2013 documentary Silenced: The Writer Georgi Markov and the Umbrella Murder, Gullino was located in Wels, Austria, where he worked as an art dealer. He was registered with the Danish Embassy in Budapest, had a new or renewed Danish passport, and received a monthly Danish social security payment. He agreed to be interviewed for the film. 

 

The world premiere of the film was in Sofia, Bulgaria, in March 2013. Below are excerpts from Gullino's interview with film director Klaus Dexel. He not only denied involvement in the Markov murder, but also he resurrected the 1980s Communist propaganda that Markov’s death was part of the West’s Cold War conspiracy against Bulgaria.

 

Q. Were you the murderer of Georgi Markov, or not?

 

A. I have nothing to do with this story. I am sorry. I wish I could give you a straight answer. But, think for a moment. If I were the murderer, do you think I should just say it?  The real truth, you don’t throw it away because it is so important. But for your broadcasting, you can just say what want, just like all the others. … But in general, why should one say the truth?  What for? You live so well with lies. Isn’t it? Or say nothing.

 

While Gullino’s English is not perfect, it is very good. Later in the taped interview, Gullino then gave his views on the Cold War and the murder of Georgi Markov: 

 

Cold War. The situation. The period. They were just accusing each other for the most horrible things. Weren’t they? Weren’t the British, the Americans, the West, the Germans, whatever, finding any occasion they could to say something bad about the East. And in the East, they did the same thing about the West. That was part of the attitude they had for the period of the Cold War.

 

It was normal for the day. What kind of British newspaper would say that life was better in Bulgaria, or in Russia, or whatever. They would say there were bad people; it was cold, nothing to eat, or whatever. And there is no freedom; there is no standard of living… On the other hand, in the eastern countries, they would have said that in England, everything is decadent, and impoverished. They were accusing one another for many years of … well, you know very well, yes, if this Mister died on his very own? But on the other hand, … the country of Bulgaria was never very famous for nothing, really nothing important in the Cold War contest, you see? Like Pope, Hungary, Czech, or Poland.  They were always talking so much about Poland. And why not also give a bit to the Bulgarians? Just a bit.

 

But, the very fact that nothing happened to me proves that nobody was really serious about me. But of course in the story, especially in those days, was an interesting story. When it happened 30 or 40 years ago. I think even a Japanese newspaper reported it. So it was quite a big story because … it was so exciting. You understand? As I told you before, the dark evening, the foggy evening, the London Bridge, the umbrella, so British the umbrella. Did they say I had a bough on the head with thorns? Conan Doyle could have made it.

 

The film was next shown at the Documentary Film Festival in Munich in May 2013. The German network ZDF and the French network ARTE aired the film in September 2013. The film touched the nerves of former Bulgarian intelligence agents and collaborators, who, in newspaper articles and in television interviews, charged that Markov died from a cat scratch that was falsely diagnosed by the British doctors.

In August 2021, the Austrian news agency APA reported that "An Italian with a Danish passport Francesco Gulino, known as "Agent Piccadilly," was found dead in his home in the Austrian city of Wales. A doctor confirmed the death of the 75-year-old former secret agent. Police said that there was no evidence of a violent death."

 

For more information

 

Details on Gullino’s alleged espionage activities for Bulgaria are documented in Hristo Hristov's book, The Double Life of Agent Piccadilly that is available to download as an e-book at www.hristo-hristov.com

 

Also, Chapter 3, “Piccadilly vs. the Tramp: the Murder of Georgi Markov” in Richard H. Cummings, Cold War Radio: the dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950 – 1989, which was reviewed in The History Herald, 6 October 2012.

 

2012 Photograph of Francisco Gullino and interview extracts courtesy of film director Klaus Dexel.

"The Winds of Freedom" -- The First Lofting of Leaflet Balloons Over the Iron Curtain, August 13, 1951 ©

In August 1951, the National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE) abolished its Research and Publications Service and created the Free Europe Press (FEP). This was used to print various publications in the USA and Europe and print leaflets and launch balloons to carry them to the countries Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. Permanent launching sites were constructed and set up in Fronau, Freying, and Hohenhard, West Germany. The Free Europe Press (FEP) printed millions of propaganda leaflets to be launched. The leaflets contained slogans such as "A new hope is stirring" and "Friends of Freedom in other lands have found a new way to reach you." The strong messages of the leaflets included,

·      A new wind is blowing    

·      They know that you also want freedom     

·      Millions of free men and women have joined together and are sending you this message of friendship over the winds of freedom.    

·      We are in touch with you daily by radio.    

·      There is no dungeon deep enough to hide the truth, no wall high enough to keep out the message of freedom.    

·      Tyranny cannot control the winds, and cannot enslave your hearts. Freedom will rise again.

The schedule and frequencies of Radio Free Europe's broadcasts to Czechoslovakia were on the reverse side of the leaflets. Organizational signatures on the reverse side included the Crusade for Freedom, the International Federation of Free Journalists, and the Confederation International des Anciens Prisonniers de Guerre (over 1,200.000 war veterans and prisoners of war from Belgium, France, Holland, and Italy).

On August 12, 1951, at 6:30 p.m., a convoy of eleven trucks, two buses, six automobiles, a radio truck, and a few taxis began the trip from Radio Free Europe headquarters in Munich to the Iron Curtain, about 170 miles northeast of Munich. One participant said, "The convoy stretches out over a half-mile. It looks like an army division on the move." The convoy arrived at a field near Tirschenreuth, West Germany, at approximately 1 a.m, on August 13 and set up the base of operations just 3 miles from the Czechoslovak border: The balloon crews began to work almost immediately in five trucks:

The plastic balloon crews work inside the truck--five men to a truck. Two men prepare the ‘pillows' and insert the message sheets; one man operates the hydrogen tanks; another nozzles in the gas; the last man 'weighs' each balloon by attaching a small metal ring with scotch tape. 

When the right amount of gas has been inserted, the balloon hangs almost stationary in the air. Finally, the opening at the corner of the balloon is heat-sealed with an electric gadget like a curling iron. The actual launching consists of tearing off the iron ring and shoving the balloon out the back end of the truck. The 'pillows' take off gracefully and slowly, their silver sides catching the moonlight.

The first balloons, about 4 feet in diameter, with the Czech word  “Svoboda”
(Freedom) written on the side in red letters, were launched at the rate of one per minute. On August 14, 1951, the General Mills public relations department posted the following information on bulletin boards at the corporate headquarters in 
Minneapolis:  

Tens of thousands of General Mills-made freedom balloons are now landing in Czechoslovakia...carrying messages of hope to people behind the Iron Curtain. Called pillow balloons because of their 54" square size, they were developed at company Research laboratories in 1949. The balloons are made of polyethylene, a substance commonly used in food saver bags

The second type of balloon was made of rubber and called "Gummies" (the German word for rubber) by the balloon crews. The "Gummies" were round, colored either red or black, and took off faster and soon raced ahead of the "pillow balloons." Three prominent American personalities eagerly participated in the balloon launchings: 

·      Famed American newspaper syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, a major proponent of the balloon launching program in his widely-read US newspaper column: "The Washington Merry-Go-Round;"

·      C.D. Jackson, President of Free Europe Committee and former Time magazine vice president;

·      Republican Party leader Harold Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota, was the National Chairman of the 1951 Crusade for Freedom campaign.

 

The lofting of balloons continued until approximately 6:30 a.m., when breakfast was served. The crews returned to work at 7 a.m. and continued launching until noon. By then, over 3,000 balloons carrying 4,000,000 leaflets were launched. It was 7 p.m. before the convoy returned to Munich, so the crews and guests could rest and sleep. 

According to Time magazine, the three launched the balloons "looking like three Statues of Liberty, held high above their heads big rubber balloons. At the signal they solemnly let go." 

The photo shows Stassen talking to reporters with Drew Pearson in the background, wearing a hat, and standing underneath a "Gummi" balloon with leaflets. After the launch, Harold Stassen said, "We tore a big hole in the Iron Curtain. If the free world can send enough messages by radio and balloon, Soviet Russia will have to give up its present world policy, and the prospects for avoiding World War III will be considerably brighter." C.D. Jackson reportedly said, 'Tonight we caught the Kremlin with its Iron Curtain down."

From October 1951 to November 1956, the skies of
Central Europe were filled with more than 500,000 balloons carrying over 300,000,000 leaflets, posters, books, and other printed matter that were sent from West Germany over the Iron Curtain to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. 

Cold War Pigeon Power: "Leaping Lena" ©

A true story of when in the 1954-55 Radio Free Europe and Crusade for Freedom used a "Freedom Pigeon" to fight Communism.

As the story goes, a German racing pigeon was to fly from Munich in a race back to her home base of Klautzenbach, near Nuremberg. She got lost and landed in Pilzen, Czechoslovakia. A pigeon fancier found her, attached a message for Radio Free Europe to her leg, and let her go. She flew back to Klautzenbach. Her owner found the note and notified RFE; the pigeon and message were given to RFE. "Leaping Lena" became her nickname. The message she carried was

 

We plead with you not to slow down in the fight against Communism because Communism must be destroyed. We beg for a speedy liberation from the power of the Kremlin and the establishment of a United States of Europe. We listen to your broadcasts. They present an entirely true picture of life behind the Iron Curtain. We would like you to tell us how we can combat "Bolshevism" and the tyrannical dictatorship existing here. We are taking every opportunity to work against the regime and do everything in our power to sabotage it.

    

                  Unbowed Pilsen

 

"Leaping Lena" arrived in the United States on August 1, 1954, when four World War II hero pigeons from Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and 15 news photographers greeted her as a V.I.P. (Very Important Pigeon). Fort Monmouth was the site of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Pigeon Breeding and Training Center. The American Racing Pigeon Union and the International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers sponsored her arrival.

 

One thousand American pigeons released in her honor carried a copy of the message to President Dwight Eisenhower and Henry Ford II, president of the Crusade for Freedom. 

 

Newspaper headlines included "Star Crusader for Radio Arrives in Nation" and "Lena, Pigeon Who Crashed Curtain, Gets Big Ovation." One photograph carried the caption: "The bird won honorary pigeonship in the United States after flying an anti-Communist message over the iron curtain." Another read, "Pigeon of Pilsen on Mission in the US." One New YorkTimes headline was "Coos and Kudos to Greet 'Anti-Red" Pigeon Who Flew Message Through Iron Curtain." One newspaper reporter not so kindly described her as "a rather drab looking expanse of feathers resembling any plump pigeon in any park."

 

After three weeks of quarantine at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Clifton, New Jersey, "Leaping Lena" reportedly then went on a press tour, helping to raise funds for Radio Free Europe in the 1954-1955 Crusade campaign. She was the "model for an insignia to be used in the fund drive to support Radio Free Europe broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain" and presumably retired in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

 

One of the four World War II hero pigeons was her mate, but, unfortunately, "Leaping Lena's" fate in the United States is not known. Possibly, she was given to a zoo, according to a history of the U.S. Army Signal Corps:

 

The advent of the electronics age brought about the demise of one of the Signal Corps' oldest forms of communications, pigeons. The Army's birds, like horses and mules before them, had fallen victim to progress. Consequently, the Signal Corps closed the Pigeon Breeding and Training Branch (formerly Center) at Fort Monmouth on May 1, 1957. The Corps sold its birds to the public except for the remaining war heroes, such as G.I. Joe, which it was presented to zoos around the country.

 

For more information 

 

Rebecca Robbins Raines. Getting the Message Through: A Branch History of the U.S. Army
Signal Corps. http://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/Front.htm#toc

Photograph of Lena is courtesy of RFE/RL, Inc.

July 14, 1950

The mobile radio unit “Barbara” used to broadcast Radio Free Europe’s first program on July 4, 1950, to Czechoslovakia. "Barbara" was not one vehicle, but a set of seven vehicles: studio van, the transmitter van, generators, a fuel supply truck, jeep and trailer, camping and housekeeping equipment, and a flatbed truck for the antenna towers. 

Beginning on July 4, 1950, the first programs to Czechoslovakia only consisted of music and spot announcements advising the listener that full programming of news and commentary would begin on July 14, 1950.  On that date, “Barbara” also sent its first broadcast to Romania.

The Murder of Slovak Exile Matúš Černák in Munich in July 1955 ©

Matúš Černák, born on August 23, 1903, in Turčianske Teplice, was a former Slovak Minister to Berlin in World War II, a Slovak National Council Abroad (SNCA) representative in West Germany, and a listed CIA informant. Černák was arrested by the American military in Bavaria, Germany, in 1945 and handed over to Czechoslovakia. He was sentenced to prison. After his release in 1948, he escaped Czechoslovakia to Bavaria. 

He was critical of Radio Free Europe's Czechoslovak Service for not representing the true interests of the Slovak people. Černák later was a joint author of a statement criticizing Radio Free Europe for “suppressing the majority (i.e., Slovaks),  recruiting personnel among communists, betraying routes of escape from Czechoslovakia, and demoralizing their listeners with American jazz.”

 

He was killed by a package bomb explosion in a Munich post office on July 5, 1955. Černák was buried in Munich’s Waldfriedhof cemetary in a ceremony attended by German Chancelor Konrad Adenauer. In 1991, his remains were sent to a cemetery in Bratislava, Slovakia.

 

The Bavarian State Criminal Office promised 5,000 DM, and later 10,000 DM for providing any information that would lead to arrest and prosecution. The police investigation revealed that the explosive package was filed at Frankfurt’s Main Train Station at the post office. It was reportedly sent by a man between the ages of 40-45, 1.65-1.70 cm tall, slim figure, dark hair, a dark beard, and reportedly spoken in broken German with a Slavic accent. The package was sent to the Slovak National Council.

 

On July 6, 1955, the Bavarian Minister-President Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner broadcast a statement in which he said that his police thought it likely that “this was the work of one or another of the exile groups in Germany.”

 

Bratislava Slovakia Radio on July 9, 1955, called the bombing “Gangster warfare in the Underworld of traitors.” 

 

There was comprehensive spread newspaper coverage in the United States and Germany of the bombing. For example, in the US, some grassroots newspapers carried headlines, "Hunting Bomb Slayer of Anti-Commie," "Bomb in Mail kills Anti-Communist Hero," and "Bomb Assasin of Slovak Leader is hunted at Munich."

Michigan Congressman Alvin Morell Bentley made remarks before Congress on July 7, 1955, including this statement, “I personally feel sure that an investigation will substantiate the fact that this is merely another of a series of Communist terrorist activities.”

 

Also, on July 7, 1955, in Munich, there was a press conference of the “Democratic Exile Union (DEU),” an association of Slovak, Romanian, Georgian, Cossak, and Hungarian émigrés. There were more than 50 German and foreign newspapermen and news agency representatives. Černák was a leader of the DEU. The conference was called to discuss his death. In a prepared statement, Černák was called "an idealist whose strength came from his Christian faith ... He died for the cause of freedom for his Slovak people, for whom he joined the ranks of martyrs."

 

On April 13, 1959, in Vienna, Austria, there was a four-hour meeting between an unidentified Czechoslovak intelligence officer and a CIA officer. That was followed up by a message to CIA headquarters about the meeting, part of which included: 

 

Czech Intelligence Service (StB) did blow up Matúš Černák. Operation conceived and run by Intelligence Service man Rudolf Baloun, who was under CTK (news agency) cover. The bomb was made in Prague, delivered to an unknown agent, probably a German, by Baloun in a meadow near Hallein, Austria. (Redacted) drove the car, and a third man, probably Lubomir (or Ladislav) Kubicek, who then TDY from Prague, went along. The agent did not know the package contained a bomb. I mailed it as instructed. When newspapers headlined Černák death, the agent got jitters, went to Vienna, went to Legation, and packed off to CSSR. (Redacted) says the purpose bombing was to create discord between Slovak separatists and Czech nationalists in Munich immigration. Adds bombing not now totally taboo, such proposals no longer approved. 

                        

Circumstantial evidence pointed to an agent who allegedly mailed the package to Černák, as Kurt Baumgartner, code name “Berthelot.” Reportedly, when Baumgartner read the news in the newspapers about the circumstances of the bombing, he panicked and immediately went to Austria to the Czechoslovak Embassy and was transported to Czechoslovakia. His StB case officer, Lieutenant Kubiček (code name “Kautský”), reportedly was awarded 2,000 Czech Crowns for “successful implementation of operative actions abroad.”

 

Baumgartner lived quietly in Prague in an apartment provided by the StB, received monthly payments, provided translations, and gave German lessons until he died in 1987. For more information about Černák and Slovak nationalism, see Chapter 9 in