Polarka
Polarka was a watchword in the Cold War . It would have triggered an occupation of eastern Austria among the Warsaw Pact troops ; this would have made a pincer movement against Tito's Yugoslavia possible in the event of a major European war.
The details of Polarka were revealed by the defected Czechoslovak Major General Jan Šejna to the Austrian news magazine profil in December 1973; later there was also a cover story (6/1974). The ORF broadcast a TV version of the revelations in February 1974, triggering a special session of the Austrian National Council . Here the ÖVP demanded the resignation of Defense Minister Karl Lütgendorf , the ruling party SPÖ, in turn , demanded the resignation of the "television giant" Gerd Bacher , who had allowed the Sejna interview to be broadcast.
The international press coverage of the Polarka publication was also great, especially in Yugoslavia and the USA . The US media accused the head of the CIA of opposing a calming phase in US foreign policy under US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and of straining the relationship between Moscow and Washington on their own. The US media relied on hints from the Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky , who described the author of the story in profil and TV interviewer Werner Stanzl as Confident of the CIA. It was undisputed that the interview could not take place without the assistance of the CIA, since Jan Sejna, the highest-ranking defector in the history of the Soviet bloc, lived in CIA custody in Washington, de facto under house arrest, as Stanzl reported.
Web links
- Yugoslavia. Action Polarka. , Der Spiegel 39/1974 of September 23, 1974
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Michael Lingens: The CIA, profile and me. profil.at from May 2, 2009 , accessed on July 10, 2012