A Hot Time in the Cold War

By Sam Warren

The author describes what it was like living in the American Embassy in Moscow, USSR, from 1967-68 in the middle of the Cold War. He was a staff sergeant in the Defense Intelligence Agency who was also the part time editor of TWIM (This Week in Moscow) the only free press in the USSR. In addition to his personal experiences, he describes what it was like living in the city.and excursions he made outside. He traveled by rail to the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and through Siberia to the city of Vladimir.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sam Warren
• Release date: Nov 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9780945949831

Sam Warren

I write books but I mostly publish and/or format books for clients. Am the president of the San Diego Writers/Editors Guild.

Book preview

Hot Time in the Cold War

By Sam Warren,

former attache staff specialist assigned to the US Embassy in Moscow, USSR.

Winter, 1967

There I was, crossing the Finnish/USSR border high up in the sky with Finish Airlines. Down below the white, wild countryside lay still and quiet, wrapped in snow. What would happen to us if we crashed? What am I doing? A simple Mennonite Kansas boy of 26 flying over enemy territory? Seven years in the Army and I'd never met the enemy once - and here I was going to live with them. How did it all happen? Time for a flashback.

Washington, D.C.

In 1962, I was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC. That's another story for later. I saw a lot of interesting people there, like Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. I also went to General MacArthur's funeral. I had duty at the front desk the night he died, so I was invited. He was just a shriveled up old man. Later I shook hands with Nixon in California. I washed my hands afterwords.

I was a staff sergeant in charge of assembling the data needed for the promotion board to do their job in deciding who was going to be promoted. I had a PFC who was assigned to helped me. It was a very tedious job. We had to sort all these 3 x 5 cards with information on all the enlisted personnel assigned to Walter Reed, and then type out a list with nine carbon copies of those eligible for promotion. As this was B.C., before computers, it was a very boring job. Kids today don't understand what it was like in these dark ages of technology.

A friend of mine worked in the EDU (electronic data processing unit) where he worked sorting data with punch cards. I thought this would be ideal for my job, so I suggested to my boss to put all the promotion information on punch cards. But my idea was turned down.

So I got my friend to teach me how to use the keypunch machine and I spent my off-duty time transferring all the 3 x 5 cards into punch cards. After that, a job that used to take three days only took a few hours. Now the problem was boredom. What was I going to do with all this free time?

So I started to take night classes at Maryland State University and taking four-day weekend trips by catching hops on Air Force planes. In the military, if a plane is going your way and has the room, you can hitch a ride. A friend of mine in personal fixed it so I could get two days leave and a two days weekend pass when I wanted it. I wouldn't know which planes were going where, but it didn't matter to me. I went to Bermuda, Miami, L.A., Wichita and even San Diego. There were also applications for special schooling that would pass over my desk. I applied for a lot of different things, including a computer school and a job as a defense attache specialist who worked in embassies. I didn't think I would get either but I got both.

What to do? Which one should I choose? Two different career paths. The embassy job with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) sounded more exciting so I chose that one and started to go to spy school through the State Department and Naval Intelligence. Why Naval instead of Army I don't know. My training was heavier on administration than spy craft.

One odd thing happened. Although the mixing of ranks was against regulations I was living off post with two lieutenants. The house was at the end of a three-way intersection with a maximum of 72 hours of parking. The house was owned by an elderly Jewish couple who spent most of their time in Florida. Our landlord had her own room and would come for a visit once in a while to check up on things. She was a nice lady who spoke with a heavy Jewish accent and would sometimes cook Jewish dishes for us.

One day a motor home was parked on the vertical side of the intersection with the back of the RV pointing at our house. It was a ratty vehicle with a slit in the back window facing right at our front window. It stayed there a week without a ticket so we were careful what we said and did. Whoever that RV belonged to clearly wasn't very subtle.

One day while listening to a lecture at the State Department's Intelligence branch the speaker told us, "I supposed you read about the nine homosexuals that we found in the State Department. Well, don't