There has never been a secret police more fanatically intent on
finding out what was going on than the Stasi, East Germany's secret
police force. It's an irony of Koehler's authoritative book that
ultimately the Stasi were unable to prevent - or even predict - the
fall of East Germany. Not for want of trying. The KGB had 480,000
full-time agents to oversee 280 million people, or one for every
5,830 citizens; the Gestapo had one for every 2,000; and the Stasi
had one for every 166. If one adds the number of regular informers,
it came to one for every 66. Never in the history of espionage have
so many spied on so few or recorded so much in such tedious detail.
Koehler, Berlin bureau chief of the Associated Press during the
height of the Cold War (as well as assistant to the president and
director of communications under President Reagan), obtained copies
of the Stasi's AP dossier, which weighed in at 14 pounds. Thousands
of canning jars were found in the archives, filled with cloth
impregnated with the body odors of suspected dissidents, so that
they could be tracked by Stasi bloodhounds. But the Stasi also went
to immense trouble to infiltrate its agents, particularly into West
Germany. Thus, Gunter Guillaume was appointed one of the three
assistants to Chancellor Willi Brandt, a rank equivalent to deputy
assistant to the president of the US, and perhaps he was even
closer, since he was reported to have acted as a pimp for Brandt.
Unsurprisingly, extraordinary sums were spent on Stasi activities.
Thus, in 1988 alone, nearly $450 million was spent on assistance to
the Cubans, Nicaraguans, Africans, and other recipients. So the
final irony may be that the East Germans ruined themselves in their
efforts to gain more security. Sometimes a little breathless, but a
detailed and comprehensive insight into one of the most chilling
and the most thorough secret police forces in history. (Kirkus
Reviews)
In this gripping narrative, John Koehler details the widespread
activities of East Germany's Ministry for State Security, or
"Stasi." The Stasi, which infiltrated every walk of East German
life, suppressed political opposition, and caused the imprisonment
of hundreds of thousands of citizens, proved to be one of the most
powerful secret police and espionage services in the world. Koehler
methodically reviews the Stasi's activities within East Germany and
overseas, including its programs for internal repression,
international espionage, terrorism and terrorist training, art
theft, and special operations in Latin America and Africa.Koehler
was both Berlin bureau chief of the Associated Press during the
height of the Cold War and a U.S. Army Intelligence officer. His
insider's account is based on primary sources, such as U.S.
intelligence files, Stasi documents made available only to the
author, and extensive interviews with victims of political
oppression, former Stasi officers, and West German government
officials. Drawing from these sources, Koehler recounts tales that
rival the most outlandish Hollywood spy thriller and, at the same
time, offers the definitive contribution to our understanding of
this still largely unwritten aspect of the history of the Cold War
and modern Germany.
General
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