Making The (Right) Connections–Documentary

German TV station MDR (Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk) produced a two-part documentary, DDR Geheime (Secret East Germany)—Die Atomwaffen der DDR—broadcast in 2006 inclusive of material derived from this monograph. Each part featured several on-screen author interview segments.

Part one Geheimoperation Fürstenberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGyIVwmriJ8

Part two Eskalation und Abzug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXXBj3vBU7E

Making The (Right) Connections–Readings

Retrospective—Read Me First

Matthias Uhl and Vladimir I. Ivkin. "Operation Atom" The Soviet Union's Stationing Of Nuclear Missiles In The German Democratic Republic, 1959. [article]
Cold War International History Project Bulletin. 12/13. Fall/Winter 2001.
[full issue] 299-306 (Section 4).

Historians' pioneering research and assessment of Russian, Western information, with postulated explanation for abrupt withdrawal of R-5M brigade. An object lesson of the problem posed in developing an accurate picture of events on the basis of fragmentary declassified sources.

Wolfgang Bayer. Geheimoperation Fürstenberg. Der Spiegel. 3. 17 January 2000. 42-46. Deutsch English

Original media disclosure of Operation Atom, with some material not in Uhl-Ivkin paper—notably, the throwaway 'connection' at the end of the article.

Benjamin B. Fischer. Before The Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet SS-3s In East Germany?
Central Intelligence Agency. Center for the Study of Intelligence Bulletin. Fall 2001. 9-12.

CIA staff historian response to 2000 publicity regarding Matthias Uhl's find, obviously without delving into Agency records, nevertheless, an accurate barometer of institutional memory.

Period Intelligence—Dropout

Special National Intelligence Estimate 85-3-62. The Military Buildup In Cuba. 19 September 1962.
[https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d433]

See document 433. No MRBM deployed (or likely to appear) outside of USSR.

Meeting No 1 (London) At Mount Royal Hotel-20 April 1961. [relevant pages extract]
Central Intelligence Agency.
Lt. Col. Oleg Penkovsky: Western Spy in Soviet GRU . document 012392, 29-30, paragraphs 101-102. [complete transcript]
[https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000012392]

Transcript: Penkovsky tells American and British intelligence services that a strategic missile brigade is currently in East Germany.

National Intelligence Estimate 11-8/1-61. Strength And Deployment Of Soviet Long Range Ballistic Missile Force. Supplement. 21 September 1961.

NIE extracts: MRBM deployed only within the USSR. Find East Germany on the map!

Period Intelligence—Here They Be

National Intelligence Estimate 11-5-61. Soviet Technical Capabilities In Guided Missiles And Space Vehicles. 25 April 1961.

NIE extracts: Shyster MRBM probably deployed in East Germany.

Medium Range Ballistic Missile Deployment In East Germany. 20 April 1961. Central Intelligence Agency.

Briefing support paper extracts: overview sections, Gross Dölln (Templin-Vogelsang) suspect MRBM deployment area.

Hugh S. Cumming Jr. Intelligence Note: Deployment Of Soviet Medium Range Missiles In East Germany. 5 January 1961. Department of State. Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

How the US Intelligence Community found 200 MRBM in East Germany.

Possible Shyster Missile Base In East Germany. Central Intelligence Agency. Office of Research and Reports. Current Support Brief. 11 August 1960. CIA-RR CB-60-41.

Suspect location assessment, also summarizing background evidence including the Frankfurt-Oder rail sighting.

Russian Accounts

Colonel General Viktor Ivanovich Yesin. Chief of RVSN Main Staff. At The Dawn of the Strategic Rocket Troops. Armeyskiy Sbornik. No 5 May 1996.
FBIS English translation.

Revelation of Operation Atom 1959.

Aleksandr Dolinin. The Order That Never Came. Krasnaya Zvezda. 16 October 1999.
English translation.

Operation Tuman 1961.