Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart reports to the Foreign Office on his second visit to RFE (again accompanied by BBC Central European chief Gregory Macdonald) between July 5 and July 8, 1955. Lockhart positively evaluated broadcasts as more responsible than in 1952 and gave high marks to the content of the leaflets dispatched to Czechoslovakia by balloon and mail. He found staff unsettled by RFE’s change of status following the restoration of German sovereignty, did not think RFE could long survive in Munich, and would advise it to relocate of its own volition before it was forced out of Germany

Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart - head of the World War II Political Warfare Executive who later had a highly popular BBC weekly program in Czech - visited RFE with BBC Central European chief Gregory Macdonald between January 29 and February 1, 1952. Reviewing personalities, attitudes, and operations in Munich, Lockhart concluded that RFE had made progress in its first year, that its broadcasters were happy to be separated geographically from émigré politicians in the US, but that RFE faced the challenge of keeping the spark of hope alive in Eastern Europe without instigating revolt. It also faced the challenge of emerging German sovereignty, which Lockhart thought would force RFE to relocate to another country. Accompanying Foreign Office memoranda generally endorsed Lockhart conclusions. Information Research Department official F.C. Stacey cautioned that “the need for sensational stories of RFE activities” for the domestic US audience might result in irresponsible RFE broadcasts.

Discussion of the upcoming vote for the location of the 1972 Olympic Games, including the possibility of Moscow bidding to host them.

The East German ambassador passes along concerns that the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich will be used by West Germany for anti-socialist purposes.

Instructions to request a delay in the vote for the 1972 Olympic Games in order to allow Moscow to submit a bid to host them.

Voting instructions, and the reasoning behind them, for the locations of the 1972 summer and winter Olympic Games.

Voting instructions for the location of the 1972 summer and winter Olympic Games.

A bomb exploded outside the RFE building in Munich on February 21, 1981, severely injuring several employees and causing major physical damage. This document, and others like it, indicates that the Ceausescu regime commissioned the “Carlos group” to carry out the attack. The Carlos group was then resident in Budapest, and this document indicates that the Hungarian Interior Ministry had advance knowledge of the bombing.

The Munich Consulate-General provides its appraisal of turmoil in the RFE Czechoslovak Service and the ensuing replacement of the American management at RFE Munich

In this entry, Mitrokhin gives an account of KGB operative Peter Yots (codename “Ingo” or “Ezhov”), and his assignments within the FRG. The KGB file presents a brief biographical sketch of Yots who was born in 1937 in Berlin, and was trained as an electrical technician who specialized in deciphering coded radio transmissions and telegrams. Drawing upon KGB files, Mitrokhin asserts that Yots worked as an agent in the First Chief Directorate which sent him to West Germany in 1961 to fulfill the aims of operation “Glavnoiie.” The operation, according to the file, required Yots to monitor the movement of FRG forces and military equipment at the “Aizedlerhoff” railroad station. Yots was, nonetheless, soon relocated to Nuremberg where he took up a job as a lighting technician at a local theater. Between 1962 and 1964, Yots contributed to operation “Delta” from the island of Nidervert off the coast of Nuremberg. The KGB account relates that Yots was authorized by the First Chief Directorate to use necessary means to intercept telegraph messages and other communications, so as to inflict “maximum damage” upon the enemy.

In 1967, Yots was relocated to Munich, where he became employed as a lighting technician at a local television station. One of Yots’ Munich missions, codenamed “Zarevo,” involved carrying out the surveillance of the “Alley Café”—a bar owned by Adolf and Mariette Laimer which was frequented by Americans. The KGB entry mentions that Yots also monitored the U.S Consulate and all surrounding public venues which attracted American diplomats and personnel. Yots was relocated by the First Chief Directorate to Czechoslovakia on August 2, 1968 but returned to Munich in 1969.