I was A tank company commander in the Fulda Gap (3rd Brigade), then in G-3 and later the HHC commander 83-88. I worked with Conrad, and know that he betrayed all of us. He was, indeed, a traitor. The German courts put him in a special prison, where he died a few years later. I agree that with the war plans Conrad kept selling to them for mere money they would have knew our weak points and every update of the GDP plan for many years. The German courts, in their ruling said that Clyde Conrad’s personal actions would have likely resulted in Nuclear release on German soil-—I agree with that assessment.
No knock on Regan who’s force improvements kept the Russians from trying.
The Real unsung hero was MSG Michael Barnes, the G-3 Sergeant Major who came in under cover and exposed Conrad. If you are still out there Mike, Thank you for your service to your country, both in Vietnam and in Bad Kreuznach
I was the G-3 plans officer and later the Deputy G-3. Conrad worked for me, as did Ramsey, Kelley, and Rondeau. Conrad was the second Hungarian spy to work as the plans NCOIC, the first was SFC Soltan Sabo, a Hungarian Refugee and former U.S. Army Captain (RIF’d after Vietnam). Soltan set up the spy network and ran it from Vienna.
I worked with Army CI folks during my last year in Germany to help nail Conrad and was the first witness at his trial in Koblenz. Although we knew in 1986 that Conrad was the spy, he wasn’t arrested until 1989 - they used him to pass disinformation in the intervening years. They estimated that he left about $2 million in a Swiss bank that no one could get to. I’m sure that his wife had the account #
The key to Conrad’s success was that he was the model soldier and the guy everyone wanted checking their security plan, safe combinations, GDP, etc., etc. He was always happy working weekends making copies of documents for exercises and terrain walks.