The FHO collection of both military and political intelligence from captured Red Army soldiers assured Gehlen 's post – WWII survival as a Western anti – Communist spymaster , with networks of spies and secret agents in the countries of Soviet-occupied Europe . During the German war against the Soviet Union in 1941 – 45 , Gehlen 's FHO collected much tactical military-intelligence about the Red Army , and much strategic , political intelligence about the Soviet Union . Understanding that the Soviet Union would defeat and occupy the Third Reich , Gehlen ordered the FHO intelligence files copied to microfilm ; the FHO files proper were stored in water-tight drums and buried in various locations in the Austrian Alps . They amounted to fifty cases of German intelligence about the Soviet Union which were at Gehlen 's disposal for sale to Western intelligence services . Meanwhile , as of 1946 , when the Soviet consolidated their hegemony and sphere of influence in central , eastern , and south-eastern Europe as agreed at the Potsdam Conference of 1945 and demarcated with what became known as the Iron Curtain , the Western Allies of World War II , the U.S. , Britain , France , had no sources of covert information within the countries where the occupying Red Army had vanquished the Wehrmacht
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
Reinhard Gehlen