The Secret Operation Revealed Decades Later

Operation Gold: Intercept Soviet communications

Considered the first covert CIA operation of the entire Cold War, Operation Gold sought to tap Soviet lines of communication at their military headquarters in Berlin. The CIA, together with the British Secret Intelligence Service, hoped to access the underground cables below the city. Accomplishing this required a massive endeavor: in 1954, digging began on a nearly 1500-foot tunnel, precariously located just underneath a major thoroughfare. About nine months after digging began, the first taps were installed.