You may think ‘fake news’ is a modern invention, but you’d be wrong. One of Czechoslovakia’s most famous disinformation campaigns was Operation NEPTUNE.

This article explains why Czechoslovak spies carried out such a nefarious plot.

The Black Lake

In 1964, a documentary crew was filming around Cerne Jezero (the Black Lake)¹. A group of divers stumbled on a series of buried chests in the lake². When they opened them, they found stolen treasure and secret documents³. The producers called the Czechoslovak security service; Štátní bezpečnost also known as ŠtB⁴.

The ŠtB were responsible for the torture of Father Toufar.

They took the chests to Prague, where the interior minister declared that retreating Germans buried them at the end of World War II⁵. Amongst other things, they found a list of Gestapo collaborators⁶.

Dismay

The ŠtB had had Nazi documents and information on Nazi collaborators for a long time⁷. The Czechoslovak resistance had fought the Nazi occupation which meant they’d lots of information. Like any intelligence resource, they were waiting for the right time to use it. Why reveal your hand now, when you use it to your advantage later?

The Czechoslovaks knew that West Germany’s intelligence services were based on the wartime Nazi networks⁸. They knew a number of government officials had served the Nazis, and even Adolf Hitler directly⁹.

At the same time, the statute of limitations on war crimes was about to expire in 1965¹⁰. Any war criminals found after 1965 would have escaped trials and prison for war crimes¹¹. Czechoslovakia wasn’t happy with this. There was a lot of media coverage about this at the time, and many countries wanted West Germany to extend this statute of limitations¹².

Apart from this, the Soviet bloc was keen to fuel anti-German feelings in Western Europe¹³.

This led to Operation NEPTUNE.

This was not the only deception Czechoslovakia carried out – Operation Border Stone was another one!

Disinformation

Ladislav Bittman was born in a working-class family and became a devout communist¹⁴. He joined the ŠtB in 1954 and served in its elite foreign intelligence service¹⁵.

In 1964 he was Deputy Chief of the new Department 8 – the department of disinformation^{16 17}. This was an umbrella department covering military, political and economic disinformation¹⁸. It was the second-most successful disinformation department in the Soviet bloc, after Russia¹⁹. They operated worldwide and ran operations on almost every continent²⁰. Bittman specialised in disinformation campaigns²¹.

This is how Operation NEPTUNE was born.

In 1964, he posed as a local and his team posed as divers to help the documentary makers with their filming^{22 23}.

They had prepared the chests, and aged them, to look as if they’d been in the water for 20 years²⁴. The metal parts were pre-rusted to look as authentic as possible²⁵. The documents were ones they’d had in their possession for some time²⁶. These “secret” chests gave the Czechoslovaks a cover story to reveal actual information.

The information ‘found’ in these chests incriminated many West German officials²⁷. The discovery made world headlines at the time²⁸.

West Germany delayed the statute of limitations for Nazi war crimes. It also waived any statute of limitations for concentration camp guards²⁹. We can therefore say that Operation NEPTUNE changed the course of post-war European history.

Disillusioned

Bittman’s work in disinformation changed him. Disillusioned with the Soviet regime, the invasion of Prague in 1968 shocked him³⁰.

This convinced him to defect to America^{31 32}.

He crippled Soviet-bloc intelligence gathering³³, given his encyclopaedic knowledge of their agents and methods.

In 1972, he wrote a book called the The Deception Game which explained Operation NEPTUNE^{34 35}.

He later mused that Operation NEPTUNE was one of their most successful campaigns. He also said it was “not successful [enough] to convince the West European public that the present-day West German regime was the practical and ideological outgrowth of Nazi Germany³⁶.”

He lived in Massachusetts³⁷ and became a professor of disinformation at Boston University³⁸.

In 2018, at the age of 87, Czechoslovakia’s most famous spy died³⁹.

References

1. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
2. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
3. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
4. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
5. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
6. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
7. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
8. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
9. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
10. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
11. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
12. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
13. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
14. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
15. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
16. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
17. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
18. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
19. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
20. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
21. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
22. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
23. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
24. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
25. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
26. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
27. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
28. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
29. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
30. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
31. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
32. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
33. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
34. Details of Czechoslovakia’s biggest disinformation operation published on web; Dita Asiedu; Radio Prague International; 2007-08-06[↩]
35. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
36. DISINFORMATION. Truth is the best defense. CASE STUDY: WEST GERMANY. A Czech ploy that worked — but only briefly; Elizabett Pond; Christian Science Monitor; 1985-03-01[↩]
37. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
38. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]
39. Famous Cold War spy Ladislav Bittman dies aged 87; Tom McEnchroe; Radio Prague International; 2018-09-24[↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.