SLAIN U.S. MAJOR HAD ONE EXPLOIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570006-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570006-7
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SIe11N U.S. MAJOR
HAD ONE EXPLOIT
Reportedly Got Into a Soviet
Tank and Photographed It
on New Year's Eve
By JAMES M. MARKHAM
Special to The New York Times
BONN, April 23 - A Western intelli-
pence source said today that the United
States Army major who was shot and
killed last month by a Soviet sentry in
East rman a carried out an
earlier mtsston in which he sneaked
into a -Soviet tank and photolzraphed tile
iytterior.
The source, who has intimate knowl-
edge of the operations of the unit to
which the major was attached, said
that in what was described as "a spe-
cially planned operation" the Amer-
ican, Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr.,
took advantage of the drunken revelry
of Soviet troops on New Year's Eve at
an unidentified base in East Germany.
The source said the American officer
slipped into a tank shed and photo-
graphed "not their very latest one, but
almost."
The Western source said he believed
the Russians were not aware of the
American officer's exploit. He declined
to name the site where the infiltration
took place or the kind of tank photo-
graphed.
Part of 14-Man Team
Major Nicholson, a 37-year-old Rus-
sian-speaking officer, was attached to
the 14-man American military liaison
mission based in Potsdam, outside
East Berlin. Since 1947; the mission has
been - allow to roam in the former
Soviet occupied zone of Germany. con-
ducting what amounts to legally sang
tioned espionage.
Under similar accords, British and
French teams also tour the East Ger-
man countryside on the lookout for
Soviet and East German maneuvers
and missile sites. The Soviet Union has
three similar missions accredited to
the erstwhile American, French and
.British sectors of what is now West
Germany. ,..
The liaison units are famed for their
risk-taking and occasionally dangerous
adventures, which in East Germany
have entailed temporary detentions,
car rammings and scuffles with Soviet
and East German soldiers. .:. .
NEW YORK TIMES
24 April, 1985
A year ago, a French soldier was
killed near Halle in East Germany
when his car was rammed head-on by a
heavy-duty East German military
vehicle in what some members of the
liaison teams regarded as a thinly dis-
guised homicide. After complaints by
French military commanders, the
Soviet military was said to have prom-
ised to prevent similar occurrences,
according to Western diplomats.
Soviet Troops Have Been Caught
Although both the Soviet and North
Atlantic Treaty Organization com-
mands declare areas off-limits for the
liaison missions, the teams are re-
nowned for stretching the rules and
sneaking into restricted areas. Soviet
liaison troops have been caught climb-
ing over the fences of NATO bases, ac-
.cording to Western diplomatic sources.
According to the official American
version, Major Nicholson was shot
without warning on March 24 by a
Soviet sentry as the major was photo-
graphing through the window of a
Soviet tank shed near the town of Lud-
wigslust. American officials have de-
scribed the major as being 300 to 500
yards away from a restricted zone, but
in an area that until the month before
had been a restricted zone.
The Soviet Union has maintained
that Maior Nicholson was in a re-
stricted area and in th e words of a
statement issued by its embassy
Washington on Monday. was "an un-
known tntru er who was carrvtng out
an intelligence mission and did not
com 1 with the warnings of the sentry
Who was acting in strict compliance
with milita manuals."
The Nicholson killing has become a
serious irritant in Soviet-American
relations, and the two nations have
openly disagreed over the results of a
meeting on April 12 that their com-
manders in Germany, Gen. Glenn K.
Otis and Gen. Mikhail M. Zaitsev, held
in Potsdam to avoid similar incidents
in the future.
Reserves Right to Use Force
The first shots, he said, were di-
rected toward the car in which the
major's partner, Sgt. Jessie G. Schatz,
was sitting, in conformity with liasion
procedures. Those shots missed.
One member of a liaison team is al-
ways supposed to remain in his vehicle,
which is typically crammed with so-
phisticated listening devices and photo-
graphic material; the car cannot be
searched under the mission's quasi-
diplomatic ground rules.
After the major was hit by a second
volley, Sergeant Schatz was detained
by the sentry and other soldiers. Some-
time later, a Soviet colonel arrived by
helicopter at the site, the source said.
He said the colonel berated Sergeant
Schatz for not respecting a Soviet offi-
cer and asked the American,. "Why did
you shoot your officer?"
The statement issued by the Soviet
Embassy on Monday said the Russians
reserved the right to use force against
unknown intruders. The statement took
issue with an account issued by the
State Department six days earlier that
said General Zaitsev had given assur-
ances that his military personnel would
not use weapons or force against the
American teams in East Germany.
The Western intelligence source who
disclosed Major Nicholson's
ear's Eve spying caper also gave
fresh details about a circumstances
of his shooting. He said the et sen-
try was in a nearby woods away from
his post and may have panicked when
he saw the major near the shed.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404570006-7