{"id":5243,"date":"2015-04-22T05:05:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T09:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=5243"},"modified":"2015-04-22T10:21:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T14:21:26","slug":"a-cold-war-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/04\/22\/a-cold-war-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cold War tale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Frederick <\/a>
Frederick Matthews in uniform. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Post-Gazette <\/a>
Post-Gazette coverage of the release of four Americans from East Germany in 1967. <\/div> <\/div>
\"West <\/a>
West Berlin children gather in front of a neighborhood grocery store near the wall that divides the city in 1966. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This photo-diagram shows the divided heart of Berlin and well-known landmarks in the devastated city. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a>
An East Berlin soldier defects by leaping over coils of barbed wire in 1961. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A vehicle driven out of East Berlin is checked by a West Berlin policeman in 1961. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"East <\/a>
East Berlin workers prepare a so-called “death strip” along the border in 1961. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"East <\/a>
East Berlin authorities discovered this tunnel leading to the west in 1962. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The four young Americans sit behind a table clogged with microphones in the brief newsreel. As the announcer proclaims the news of their release from East German prison, one of the two African-Americans takes a drag on a cigarette, while fatigue and emotion tug at face of the young woman with the 1960s bouffant hairdo when the camera pans across the group.<\/p>\n

It was Feb. 3, 1967, and the story of their release after secret talks was racing across the news wires.<\/p>\n

Forty-eight years later, the phone rang to voicemail in the Akron, Ohio, home of Moses Reese Herrin.<\/p>\n

Not until the words \u201cI\u2019m trying to find an ex-GI who was in Germany in the 60s\u201d did he pick up.<\/p>\n

Was he the former GI appearing in that newsreel, freed after being convicted in 1965 to eight years for smuggling East Germans across the Berlin Wall?<\/p>\n