OPERATIONAL AGENCY RECONNAISSANCE OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AND ITS PRIORITY TASKS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 1960s

The topic addressed in the scientific paper is captured based on extensive original archival research, yet unpublished. It focuses on the intricate period of the first half of the 1960s, when the Czechoslovak military intelligence had to build up agency networks in designated central and auxiliary areas of interest. Its operational agency reconnaissance had prioritized the “Central European Theatre of Operations,” where a military conflict with NATO was anticipated by the Warsaw Pact military strategists. In the period in question, the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak People’s Army started building its illegal residencies. Their operation was accompanied by numerous issues. Finally, the command of the Agency Section had to develop a new concept of operational agency reconnaissance according to the Soviet model.