Brixmis Memorial

From the BBC:
"Cold War spies recognised by National Memorial Arboretum"

A £10,000 memorial has been unveiled in Staffordshire to commemorate the work of Cold War spies.

The National Memorial Arboretum installation recognises the contribution of the Brixmis - the British Commanders-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany. The work was dangerous and many of those who took part were injured.  Former members of the mission and their families attended the unveiling on Saturday.  Tony Matthews, a volunteer at the arboretum, said: "The arboretum is not just about the dead, it's about remembering the people who gave service to their country. "These men found out about Soviet tactics, different equipment. They slept in their cars for days on end.  "It's important their work is remembered." Brixmis officers worked with their American and French counterparts throughout the Cold War. They gathered military intelligence behind the Iron Curtain, stealing Soviet military hardware and searching East German rubbish dumps for classified information. Donations helped fund the memorial.

^ People often forget all the men and women who worked "behind-the-scenes" during the Cold War to help stop Communism and to help ensure millions of innocent people around Eastern Europe and the rest of the world had the basic freedoms that were denied them by the Communists, but were eventually won for them when the Cold War ended in December 1991 Any time you have to forcibly stop your own people (through Walls, death strips, border exclusion zones, etc.) from escaping through own country for a chance of basic rights and freedom then you know what you are doing is wrong. Communism has proven in every country that has imposed it that it can never work and always leads to a dictatorship with innocent people dying or being imprisoned. It is thanks to the hard work of Brixmis and many other such groups that the Cold War never turned hot and that freedom won over Communism. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-37402094