Cold War Infiltration: The Nightingale Plan

At the height of the Cold War in 1978, the division between East and West Germany grew ever more entrenched, and the Berlin Wall became a frontline in the intelligence war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The KGB and CIA waged an all-out campaign of infiltration and counterintelligence across Europe, vying for the strategic initiative through disinformation, double agents, and technological surveillance. East Germany’s Stasi, or Ministry for State Security, helped the KGB build a tightly controlled surveillance network, while ordinary people viewed “infiltration across the Wall” with both fear and secret longing.