Cold War Weapons Caches

Weapons cache found in Gaza (Source)

At one time I started reading a book called Nuclear Suitcase by Joel Jenkins. I thought the book itself was terrible, and I'm not recommending that anyone read it. I stopped about a third of the way through it. However, the premise intrigued me--that the Soviet Union had created caches of weapons (including potentially small nuclear "suitcase" bombs) inside the United States during the Cold War. The author noted Congressional testimony concerning the caches, and I tracked down an article about the subject from the January 25, 2000, Los Angeles Times.

A former Soviet spy testified at a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday that Russian intelligence operatives placed weapons and communications caches--perhaps even small nuclear devices--in California and other states as part of a plan to destabilize the United States through sabotage.

Those caches, hidden during the Cold War and perhaps for years afterward, were to be used by elite Russian commandos to attack political leaders, military installations and oil pipelines, power plants and other civilian targets in the event of war or increased political tensions between the two superpowers, according to Stanislav Lunev.

Lunev was the star witness at the field hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform. A former colonel, he was billed as the highest-ranking member of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU ever to defect to the United States.

... The central reason for the hearing--the suggestion that there may be "portable tactical nuclear devices" stashed in suitcases and hidden in strategic locations across the United States--has been controversial and strongly discounted by some, including senior State Department officials.

Critics say that Lunev has never been able to identify a specific location of one of the sites and that even if they exist, they probably contain items that are a lot less destructive than portable nuclear weapons.

On Monday, Lunev had the luxury of appearing only before two sympathetic Republican congressmen--committee Chairman Dan Burton of Indiana and Joe Scarborough of Florida--who didn't grill him on the details of his allegations.

Lunev said he is unable to pinpoint the locations of the caches because his orders were only to locate potential sites.

But he insisted that during his nearly four years spent in Washington, D.C., before 1992, he was one of literally hundreds of agents who were told to find such secret hiding places.

"I had very clear instructions: These dead-drop positions would need to be for all types of weapons, including nuclear weapon[s]," Lunev said in a heavy Russian accent. Lunev said the caches also contained guns, radios, maps and currency.

Lunev's allegations received support last year when another Soviet defector, Vasili Mitrokhin--an archivist for the Soviet intelligence service KGB--co-wrote a book that contended that hundreds of the sites were scattered across the United States and Europe.

Mitrokhin had smuggled information out of the Soviet Union and only had time to write down four specific locations of the caches--three in Switzerland and one in Belgium. When authorities accessed them, they found at least some evidence of intelligence activity.

One bunker in Switzerland exploded when authorities sprayed it with a water cannon.

Burton said he wanted Monday's hearing to take place in Los Angeles because intelligence information indicates that California was one of the major targets for such caches in the United States.

Also, there is a preponderance of important civilian and military installations near Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to the two congressmen and Lunev.

"California is the most populous state in the nation," Burton said. "If there are hidden caches of explosives in this state, that's very dangerous. That's something the people ought to be informed about."

A senior State Department official said the administration--and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in particular--were taking the allegations very seriously.

The official said, "We understand that the FBI investigation to date has not produced evidence of such arms caches in the United States." The source added that senior Clinton administration officials "have asked the Russians [about the arms caches] . . . and they have denied that there are such caches placed around the country."

(See also this article). In 2014, notes smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist, were made publicly available.  Reporting on the information contained therein, The Telegraph wrote:

Booby-trapped caches of weapons are probably still hidden around Britain after being concealed during the Cold War by Soviet agents preparing for conflict, a leading historian has said. 

Details of how clandestine stockpiles of small arms and communications gear were hidden across Europe are disclosed in a KGB intelligence archive made public for the first time on Monday. 

* * * 

The trove of files copied down by a senior KGB archivist called Vasili Mitrokhin over a 12 year period before he defected in 1992 is considered one of the most invaluable intelligence sources of the Cold War and provides a detailed insight into Soviet spy operations. 

Nineteen of 33 box files containing his notes are being opened to the public at Churchill College in Cambridge.

Mitrokhin’s notes provide detailed descriptions of weapons caches hidden around major European cities for use by agents operating abroad should tensions escalate into a conflict. 

Professor Christopher Andrew, a historian and friend of Mitrokhin who has written two books on the archive, said caches were hidden around most major cities. 

Though the archive provides no details of hidden weapons in Britain, they are almost certainly here, he said. 

He added: "This was a large scale operation and the caches were strategically placed in most Nato countries during the Cold War. 

"Given that Britain was second only to the United States in terms of importance to the Soviets at this time, it would be remarkable if this tactic wasn't deployed here. 

"Of course by now they would not be easy to find and it is unlikely the weapons would be serviceable." 

Describing one stash near Berne, Switzerland, Mitrokhin provides directions to a chapel near a farm. 

He adds: "After taking 36 steps, you will be at the point between two large leafy trees, the only ones in the sector. 

"The distance between the trees is three paces. The area between the trees has been used for the cache." 

Another note provides instructions on how to disarm explosive booby-traps on the caches.

 (See also this article at the Daily Mail).

Of course, the Soviet Union was not the only country to create caches of weapons. It was reported in 1996 that the United States had negotiated with Austria to remove weapons caches placed by the CIA decades earlier.