Operation Neptune was a 1964

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...

operation by the

secret services A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

Czechoslavakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

( State Security) and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

) and involved fake Nazi-era documents that were found in submerged chests. Operation Neptune's objectives were to discredit Western politicians by revealing the names of former Nazi informants whom they were still using as spies in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

and to place pressure on

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

to extend the statute of limitations on the prosecution of war criminals, including extending the statute of limitations.

Story

In 1964, the

Czechoslovak State Security State Security ( cs, Státní bezpečnost, sk, Štátna bezpečnosť) or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it de ...

publicly claimed to have discovered Nazi-era intelligence files hidden beneath the surface of

Černé jezero Černé jezero (german: Schwarzer See, meaning "Black Lake") in the Bohemian Forest is the largest and deepest natural lake in the Czech Republic. This triangular lake surrounded with spruce forest is located about 6 km northwest of Železn� ...

, a Czech Republic lake in the Šumava, on the border with

. The four chests containing the papers were supposedly discovered during the making of a documentary in the presence of members of the Western press. In fact, State Security itself had placed them there in collaboration with the KGB.Dita Asiedu
"Details of Czechoslovakia's biggest disinformation operation published on web"

Radio Prague Radio Prague International ( cs, Český rozhlas 7 – Radio Praha) is the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic. Broadcasting first began on August 31, 1936 near the spa town of Poděbrady. Radio Prague broadcasts in ...

, 8 June 2007. The apparent discovery was a

operation, the largest conducted by the State Security. The fake papers were found in sunken chests, which had been carefully doctored to appear as if they had been submerged since World War II. The chests had been brought from the

. The agent who led the divers to make the discovery and who had originally placed them in the lake,

Ladislav Bittman Lawrence Martin-Bittman (14 February 1931 – 18 September 2018), formerly known as Ladislav Bittman, was an American artist, author, and retired professor of disinformation at Boston University. He was best known for his 1983 book, '' The KGB an ...

, later known as Lawrence Martin-Bittman, defected to the West in 1968 and published a book on the plot."The Spy Who Came Into the Classroom Teaches at Boston U."
'' The New York Times'', 27 April 1994.Dinah Cardin, "Nobody Did it Better", ''Wicked Local: North of Boston'', 2 February 2007
p. 5
One scholar argues that the papers were possibly genuine although the former Czechoslovak spy

Josef Frolík Josef Frolík (September 22, 1928 – May 1989) was a Czechoslovak spy who, in 1969, defected to the United States and joined the CIA. Childhood Josef Frolík was born in Libušín, Czechoslovakia. He graduated from secondary school at the end of ...

described them in his 1975 memoirs as forgeries.

Result

The operation also succeeded in worsening relations between Germany and Italy, as the names published included people who had lived in Germany and worked against Italy during the war. The operation had some temporary success."Case Study: West Germany: A Czech ploy that worked—but only briefly"
'' Christian Science Monitor'', 1 March 1985 (pay per view).

Later history

The Czech civilian intelligence agency posted the files on Operation Neptune on its website.

Story

Result

Later history

See also

References

Further reading