Followup to the Bridge of Spies" Movie - Swarthmore professor snared in "Bridge of Spies"

The twist in the "Bridge of Spies" movie for me was the inclusion of a American grad student in the negotiations. His release was facilitated at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. I always hope to learn new things about the Cold War every time I open a web link from my Google Alert feed. None of the articles and reviews I read on the movie mentioned Professor Pryor at all. I purposely did not research the historical side of the story so I wouldn't spoil the movie when I watched it for the first time. I didn't want to know the real story until after I saw the movie for entertainment value.

The article I link to today for you is the true side of his part of the event, as told by him, to the Philly.com reporter. As usual, the real version and the Hollywood version differ some. I think they call it artistic license?

Follow this link to read the complete article: Swarthmore prof was snared in "Bridge of Spies" case

Professor Pryor 2015

Thank you to the Philly.com website for allowing me to link to the article and to Laurence Kesterson for the re-posting of the photograph.

If you would like additional information about Checkpoint Charlie, here are two videos. One is a 28 minute general version about the site and the other is about a specific incident where American and Soviet tanks stood muzzle to muzzle once. Both are from the early 1960s. Good stuff.

Checkpoint Charlie - 28 minutes - U S Army Documentary

4 minute segment of a CNN show on a Checkpoint Charlie standoff in 1961

Thank you to youtube.com and posters Bright Enlightenment and Jaglavak Soldier for allowing me to link to their post.