[1][2] Produced by Reuven Frank and narrated by Piers Anderton, it was an NBC White Paper installment that was broadcast on December 10, 1962, and sponsored by the Gulf Oil Corporation.
[8] Later, in 2019, the BBC released a ten-part radio documentary about the escape, based on original interviews with the survivors, documents from the Stasi archives, and the NBC recordings.
[11] Reluctant to add to global tensions in light of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the television network decided on 23 October to indefinitely postpone the broadcast.
[12] The Kennedy administration had opposed[clarification needed] airing the documentary, worried that NBC was increasing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother and attorney general, was reported to have commented "That was a terrible thing you people did, buying that tunnel.