Dieter Gerhardt

Dieter Gerhardt
(Russian: Дитер Герхардт)
Born Dieter Felix Gerhardt
(1935-11-01) 1 November 1935
Residence Switzerland
Nationality South African
Alma mater South African Naval Academy
Occupation former commodore in the South African Navy
Spouse(s) Janet Coggin (1958–1966; divorced)
Ruth Johr (codename "Lena"[1]) (1973–present)
Spying career
Allegiance Soviet Union Soviet Union
Service GRU
Active 1962–1983
Codename(s) Felix[1] (Russian: Феликс)

Dieter Felix Gerhardt (born 1 November 1935)[2] is a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York City in 1983 following information obtained from a Soviet defector. He was convicted of high treason as a Soviet spy in South Africa together with his second wife, Ruth, who had acted as his courier. Both were released prior to the change of government following the 1994 general election.

Early life, education and military training

Born November 1, 1935, Gerhardt joined the South African Navy after his father successfully persuaded naval chief Hugo Biermann to take the troubled teenager under his wing to try to instill discipline in him;[3] he graduated from the Naval Academy in Saldanha Bay in 1956, winning the Sword of Honour.[4][5] In 1962 he attended a Royal Navy mine school in Portsmouth and completed the parachute training course at RAF Abingdon. After his training in Britain, he was seconded to the Royal Navy.[6] He started his spying career in his late twenties,[3] while still a junior naval officer, by offering his services to the South African Communist Party. Bram Fischer referred him to the Soviet embassy in London,[7] where the "walk-in" was recruited into the GRU, the Soviet military intelligence branch, and instructed to continue his career in the South African military.[3]

Spy activities

As part of his service in the Royal Navy, he trained at HMS Collingwood and served on HMS Tenby (F65), and passed classified information about the weapons systems there to the Soviets.[5] Among the systems he compromised through these activities were the SeaCat and Sea Sparrow missiles.[8] He was also responsible for passing the first intelligence information about the French Exocet missile to the Soviets.[9] British journalist and security services specialist Chapman Pincher maintained that, while in London in the late 1960s, Gerhardt was able to interview Royal Navy Polaris submarine crews for potential candidates that the Soviets could approach.[10] It was also during this time that he met his first wife, British-born Janet Coggin whom he married in 1958.

Coggin says she became aware of her husband's Cold War spying activities eight years later in 1966,[11][12] but chose not to turn him in, fearing that he would be executed, leaving her children fatherless. She says Gerhardt eventually gave her an ultimatum to become a spy too, which she declined, forcing the couple's separation. She divorced him in 1966 and moved to Ireland with her children, claiming that she lived in constant fear of the Soviet security services.[11] She subsequently published a book in 1999 about her experiences called 'The Spy's Wife'.[12]

In 1973 Gerhardt married his second wife, Ruth Johr, a Swiss citizen who author Chapman Pincher claims was already a spy for the German Democratic Republic.[13] According to Gerhardt, he recruited her shortly after they were married.[14] She travelled to Moscow to undergo training.[7]

Simon's Town naval base in 2006

Gerhardt rose through the ranks of the naval establishment as his career progressed. Upon his return from training in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, he served as the naval liaison officer with the defence company that subsequently become Armscor.[15] From 1972–1978, he was appointed as a senior staff officer to the Chief of the SADF in Pretoria. In this position he was able to access South African Army and Air Force secrets and plans regarding the South African Border War. He claims direct involvement in aspects of Israeli and South Africa's military cooperation, using this position in 1975 to pass Israeli secrets to the Soviets,[16][17] including details of the purchase of Jericho missiles from Israel.[5]

Later, he was appointed commander of the strategically important Simonstown naval dockyard. In this position, he had access to all the South African Naval intelligence reports from the Silvermine listening post near Cape Town,[18] as well as technical details of weapons systems. He reportedly revealed to the Soviets most of the Western naval surveillance techniques for the South Atlantic.[19] During the 1982 Falklands War, Gerhardt was allegedly able to use his position to supply the Soviets with detailed information about the locations of Royal Navy ships in the south Atlantic that the South African Navy intercepted at Silvermine.[6][20] Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hill-Norton publicly contradicted this view, but supported screening of Royal Navy officers who had been in contact with Gerhardt throughout his career.[21]

Gerhardt visited the USSR five times during his career, while his wife travelled with him twice in 1972 and 1976.[22] He was reportedly paid 800,000 Swiss Francs by the GRU for his spying activities; his contact in the GRU said that money was not the motive for Gerhardt.[23]

Arrest, trial and subsequent release

Gerhardt's cover was finally blown by Soviet double agent Vladimir Vetrov (given the codename "Farewell" by France's DST intelligence service[24])[25][26] He was arrested at his hotel in New York City in January 1983 in a sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation while he was taking a degree in mathematics at Syracuse University.[5] The CIA interrogated him for 11 days,[4] during which time he gave up one of his Soviet handlers, Vitaly Shlykov (codename "Bob"[1]). Shlykov, who did not know that the Gerhardts had been arrested, was also arrested on 25 January when he travelled to Zurich under the alias "Mikhail Nikolayev" for a pre-arranged meeting with Ruth Gerhardt.[27][28] He had in his possession $100,000 in cash that he intended to pay her;[27][23][28] he did not disclose his real identity to Swiss authorities, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment for spying.[27]

P.W. Botha announced Gerhardt's arrest to the world in a special press conference on 26 January 1983.[29] Following his deportation to South Africa, Gerhardt and his wife were tried in camera in the Cape Town Supreme Court, with the prospect of a death sentence being handed down for high treason.[21] In his trial, Gerhardt stated that the repulsion he felt towards his father's right-wing political beliefs drove him to fight apartheid in serving the USSR.[23][30] According to Gerhardt, he deliberately attempted to sow confusion in the trial by stating in his defence that he had spied for an unnamed third country that was not hostile to South Africa.[14] His first wife described him as a "traditional apartheid-accepting South African";[11] he had told her that he wanted revenge against the South African government for interning his father, a Nazi sympathizer, during World War II.[20] Ruth Gerhardt claimed in her defence that she thought he was a double agent working for South Africa.[31] Judge George Munnik sentenced him to life imprisonment in December 1983, while his wife Ruth received a 10-year sentence for acting as a courier.[32] The judge said that he would have passed the death sentence on Gerhardt that the prosecution sought if the information he had passed to the Soviet Union had led to the death of a South African soldier.[14]

Ruth Gerhardt served her sentence together with Barbara Hogan and other anti-apartheid dissidents.[14] In 1988, she attempted to gain her freedom by renouncing violence, and thereby take advantage of an offer made by PW Botha to political prisoners like Nelson Mandela, however the request was turned down by Justice Goldstone.[33]

Dieter Gerhardt was one of the imprisoned spies who was mooted for inclusion in a 1989 East-West prisoner exchange amongst a number of countries that did not materialise.[34] In 1990 when FW de Klerk unbanned organisations such as the ANC and released political prisoners like Nelson Mandela, Gerhardt was not one of those who was freed. He was visited in prison on 22 January 1992 by a delegation from the ANC, who were seeking information regarding the SADF that might have assisted them in CODESA negotiations with the National Party government.[35] Gerhardt was released in August 1992 following his application for release, political pressure in South Africa and an appeal by Russian premier Boris Yeltsin to South African President FW de Klerk when the latter visited Moscow after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[1][5][31][36][37][lower-alpha 1] Former Minister of Defence Magnus Malan said that the former spy's release was a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic ties and the signing of a trade agreement between South Africa and the Russian Federation.[40]

Gerhardt moved to Basel, Switzerland, following in the footsteps of his Swiss wife Ruth Gerhardt, who was released in 1990 following a request from the Swiss government.[41] He stated upon his release that: "I did not feel like a traitor or someone who was betraying his colleagues. I was a political activist fighting the evil regime of apartheid. It was nothing personal."[42] Gerhardt was subsequently granted amnesty in 1999 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,[43] and his rank of rear admiral restored.[44]

Nuclear weapons controversy

Pelindaba

He claimed that the United States and the Soviet Union met in 1978 to discuss South Africa's nuclear weapons programme, and that the Soviets proposed a pre-emptive strike on the Pelindaba plant.[45]

In February 1994, he told Des Blow of the Johannesburg City Press that the Vela Incident was the result of a joint Israeli-South African nuclear test, code-named Operation Phoenix.[46] He stated that he had no official knowledge of the alleged test, but was not ready to provide further details.[46] In a subsequent interview with David Albright in March 1994, he stated that no South African warships had been involved, but declined to provide further details.[46]

Popular Mechanics contends that the mystery surrounding the incident may finally have been resolved if Gerhardt were a more credible source, [47] while other authors suggest that newly declassified documents increase the credibility of his claims.[48]

Further reading

  • Bergman, R (7 April 2000). "Treasons of Conscience". Haaretz.
  • Pavlov, Vitaly (1994). Сезам, откройся! [Open Sesame!] (in Russian).
  • Pilyatskin, Boris (14 January 1992). Феликс и Лина [Felix and Lena] (in Russian). Izvestia.
  • Rees, Mervyn (1983-11-20). "The Spy Who Knew It All". London: Daily Mail. pp. 1–2, 31–34.
  • Powers & Conflicts: Geopolitical Analysis & Decisions (Puissances & Conflits: Analyses & Décisions Géopolitiques) (in French). Éditions du Fleuve. 1990. ISBN 2-89372-043-9.
  • Venter, Al J.; Badenhorst, Nicholas Paul (2008). How South Africa Built Six Atom Bombs and Then Abandoned Its Nuclear Weapons Program. Ashanti. ISBN 0-9814098-4-9.
  • Wolton, Thierry (1987). Le KGB en France [The KGB in France] (in French). Grasset. ISBN 2-253-04106-8.
  • Панкин, Алексей Борисович (5 December 2012). "Наш разведчик-нелегал пытался спасти СССР, но ему Гайдар помешал". Pravda.
  • Mlechin, Leonard (24 Apr 2006). "Our Man in a Swiss Prison". Retrieved 4 Jan 2013.
  • Рыковцева, Елена (2 May 2006). "What Occupied the Russian Secret Services Abroad". Retrieved 4 January 2013.

Notes

  1. ↑ Gerhard was not a member of any of the previously banned political organisations such as the ANC. There is some evidence to suggest that other people like Helen Suzman and Nelson Mandela also intervened on his behalf at various points in time.[38][39]

Footnotes

References

  • "ANC Daily Newsbriefing" (Press release). ANC. 6 March 1992.
  • "Statement of the National Executive Committee on the occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the ANC" (Press release). ANC. 8 January 1992. Archived from the original on 10 January 2012.
  • "East-West Spy Swap Disclosed". The Pittsburgh Press. 7 September 1989. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  • Albright, David (July 1994). "South Africa and the Affordable Bomb". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 50. 4.
  • Albright, David; Gay, Corey (November–December 1997). "A Flash From the Past". The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  • Claassen, Pierre (27 August 1992). "Dieter Gerhardt Released". South African Press Association (SAPA) via e-tools.co.za. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  • Coggin, Janet (1999). The Spy's Wife. Constable & Robinson. ISBN 0-09-479490-1.
  • Cook, Emma (1999-03-28). "Interview: Janet Coggin - The Spy Who Lied to Me". The Independent. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
  • Hill-Norton, Peter (31 December 1983). "Concern in Britain Over Gerhardt Spying Network". Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  • Kalley, Jacqueline Audrey; Schoeman, Elna; Andor, Lydia Eve (1999). Southern African political history: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-30247-2.
  • Liberman, Peter (1994). "Israel and the South African Bomb" (pdf). The Non-Proliferation Review.
  • McGreal, Chris (24 May 2010). "Revealed: How Israel Offered to Sell South Africa Nuclear Weapons". Washington: The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  • Malan, Magnus (2006). My Life with the SA Defence Force. Protea. ISBN 978-1869191146.
  • Meyer, Thierry; Hoesli, Éric (8 October 2009). "Arrested in Switzerland, the Russian Spy Tells (French)". 24heures.ch. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 10 Jan 2012.
  • Parks, Michael (13 May 1987). "Convicted of Aiding Adversaries". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  • Pilyatskin, Boris (26 December 2005). "Loaf of bread and "The Gates of Hell" (Буханка хлеба и "Врата ада"" (in Russian). Izvestia. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  • Pincher, Chapman (1987). Traitors: The Labyrinths of Treason. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 0-283-99379-0. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  • Polakow-Suransky, Sasha (2010). The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa. Jacana Media. ISBN 1-77009-840-2.
  • Pretorius, André (2011-11-11). "Spy-Spy a True(?) Story (Spioen-Spioen 'n Ware(?) Verhaal" (in Afrikaans). Beeld. Retrieved 2011-12-22. (in Afrikaans)
  • Rice, Bill (2010). Simon's Town Dockyard: The First 100 Years. Simon’s Town Historical Society/South African Naval Heritage Trust. ISBN 0-620-47932-9.
  • "Freed South African Spy Proud Of Work For Soviets". Orlando Sentinel. 1990-06-04. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
  • Reynolds, Reg (January 2009). "Spying for Russia on the Rock". The Gibratar Times.
  • Rusbridger, James (1991). The Intelligence Game: The Illusions and Delusions of International Espionage. IB Taurus. ISBN 1-85043-338-0.
  • Sanders, James (2006). Apartheid's Friends: The Rise and Fall of South Africa's Secret Service. John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-6675-4.
  • Stirling, Tony (3 January 1984). "'Biggest Blow' Ever Received". Johannesburg: The Citizen.
  • Suzman, Helen (2009). "Helen Suzman Papers, 1944-2009". Johannesburg, South Africa: The Library, University of the Witwatersrand.
  • Trahair, RC (2004). Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret operations. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-31955-3.
  • Trenear-Harvey, Glenmore S. (2009). Historical Dictionary of Air Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5982-3.
  • "Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Committee: Application in Terms of Section 18 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No 34 of 1995: Dieter Felix Gerhardt Application". Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 1999. Retrieved 10 Jan 2012.
  • Weiss, Guss W. (27 July 2008). "The Farewell Dossier: Duping the Soviets". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  • West, Nigel (2010). Historical Dictionary of Naval Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-6760-5.
  • Wilson, Jim (May 1997). "Finding Hidden Nukes". Popular Mechanics. 174 (5).
  • "AK2444: Dieter Gerhardt vs Minister of Justice and State President". University of the Witwatersrand. 1983–1992. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  • Younghusband, Peter (28 January 1983). "Red Faces in Pretoria Over Spy Allegations". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  • "Political Obituaries: Vitaly Shlykov". The Daily Telegraph. 24 November 2011.
  • "Nelson Mandela 8 June Visit Reported". Daily Report: West Europe. The Service (241). 1990.
  • "Former SA Spy Feels Like A Political Activist, Not A Traitor..." Johannesburg: South African Press Association. 3 September 1992. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  • "Spy Fails To Gain Release". Associated Press. 8 September 1988. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
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