WWIII Pop Culture: World War III (1998) Part I

World War III is the title of an alternative history pseudo-documentary produced and released in 1998 by ZDF, a German public television broadcasting company. Two versions of the documentary were made: one German and the other English. The English version was released in 1999. From what I’ve read and been told, there are several minor …

Death Knell Of The Pact D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part I

Wünsdorf was chosen as a target because of its military relevance. The East German town played host to the peacetime headquarters of Group Soviet Forces Germany and was positioned high on NATO’s target list. Many East German military officers and government officials were aware that Wünsdorf would be targeted in the event of a limited …

West Berlin D+25 (3 August, 1987)

On the morning of 3 August, 1987, as dawn broke across the eastern sky, few residents of West Berlin were aware that a temporary ceasefire was now in place across Europe. NATO and Warsaw Pact military forces were no longer engaged in combat with one another. Or that US and Soviet governments had agreed to …

The Politics of Global War: The Eve of Disintegration Part II

Poland Civilian demonstrations resumed on the morning of 26 July, 1987 in greater numbers than the previous day. Thousands of people turned out in almost every major city in the country. The audacity of the crowds was on full display as well. Buildings that housed government offices were ransacked and in some cases set ablaze. …

Cracks Widen: East Germany D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part III

0400- In East Berlin at the State Council Building , a meeting of the National Defense Council is hastily called for 6 AM. General Secretary Honecker, after separate deliberations with Defense Minister Heinz Kessler and Minister of State Security Erich Mielke, orders both men to remain in the building. Party guards loyal to Honecker take …

Cracks Widen: East Germany D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part II

The motivations behind the bold action Heinz Kessler took early on D+16 stemmed largely from personal rivalry and a desire for personal political gain. To say the Ministries of Defense and State Security were rivals would be a gross understatement. The relationship between the two had been irrevocably severed for years, fueled by professional, as …

Cracks Widen: East Germany D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part I

Word of the Pelkwitz incident reached the halls of the East German government early in the evening of D+15. The initial arrival came in the form of an unsubstantiated rumor with scant details passed between junior-ranking officials at the MND (Ministry of National Defense). It wasn’t until an hour past midnight that the news eventually …

Cracks in the Pact D+15: East Germany Part II

The fuse was lit in Pelkwitz. Around 0400 hours on D+15, a damaged US Air Force F-16C Falcon, returning from a mission outside of Cottbus, crashed north of the tiny hamlet of Pelkwitz, just off of the Bundestrasse 102 roadway. A number of individuals on the ground heard or saw the crash. Some were farmers …

Cracks in the Pact D+15: East Germany Part I

As was the case with all Warsaw Pact countries, the seeds of defiance and resistance to Soviet domination had been planted long before July, 1987. Events earlier in the 1980s, coupled with the start of the Third World War served to accelerate the development of these seeds into plants. By late July, 1987 the plants …

The Central Front D+13 (22 July, 1987) Part III

The meeting took place at the same location as the one held ten days earlier; a luxury home in Waldsiedlung, a suburb north of Berlin that served as an exclusive residential zone for senior GDR politicians and party officials. Snetkov arrived shortly before 2100. The journey from Stendal to this exclusionary neighborhood outside of Berlin …