Cold War Tales
The Cold War was a period of great tension, and with all the posturing, stockpiling, and military maneuvering by the US and the Soviet Union, there came a rich history of obscure stories and eyebrow-raising tales. While the standoff between the superpowers was very much conventional, some of their top secret projects and undercover missions were incredibly bizarre.
10 The Military Liaison Missions
After the end of World War II and the division of Germany into four occupation zones, the Western Allies and the Soviets signed a series of agreements, allowing a small number of military personnel from each side (usually less than two dozen) to deploy in each other’s occupation zones. These soldiers would monitor the other side and ostensibly facilitate better relations between the superpowers. When the American military heard about this creepy chopper, they contracted the Hughes Corporation to make a helicopter that was as quiet as possible, and soon, the CIA was Hughes’s most clandestine customer.
The two OH-6A helicopters that were rebuilt for the CIA were cutting edge machines. They were fitted with electronics and external fuel tanks, and they were fine-tuned with specifically modified engines that could produce double the power of that on a normal OH-6. And of course, the choppers were painted black.
On December 5, 1972, one of these super-quiet helicopters, carrying two commandos, flew into North Vietnam. The team successfully planted the wiretap in the dead of night and managed to escape the country. The helicopters were never used again, but the CIA managed to get enough intelligence from the wiretap that Kissinger was able to negotiate with the North Vietnamese . . . but in the end, it was all for naught.
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