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 ...

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 nationa ...

( KGB) 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 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 Russia, whi ...

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 ...

to extend the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

on the prosecution of war criminals, including extending the

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 d ...

publicly claimed to have discovered Nazi-era intelligence files hidden beneath the surface of Černé jezero, a

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. 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, 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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 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 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 Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

'', 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