Arthur D . Nicholson Arthur D . Nicholson ( 7 June 1947 - 24 March 1985 ) was a United States Army military intelligence officer shot by a Soviet sentry while engaged in intelligence - gathering activities as part of an authorized Military Liaison Mission which operated under reciprocal U . S . - Soviet authority . Military Liaison Missions were ostensibly liaisons between the British , French and U . S . forces and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany ( East Germany ) , but they had a known intelligence - gathering secondary mission and an important role to verify that offensive action was not being prepared . Reciprocal groups were authorized and operated by both the British , French and U . S . ( in East Germany ) and the Soviet Union ( in West Germany ) during the Cold War . Nicholson is officially regarded by the U . S . Department of Defense as having been a victim of murder and the final victim of the Cold War . Nicholson ' s death led to a U . S . - Soviet crisis and intense negotiations regarding the Military Liaison Missions . Career as intelligence officer . Nicholson was the son of a career navy officer . He graduated from Joel Barlow High School ( Connecticut ) in 1965 and achieved his bachelor ' s degree from Transylvania University in 1969 before joining the U . S . Army in 1970 . Because of Nicholson ' s specialty in military intelligence ( MI ) , his full career is not known in detail . He served as a Battalion S - 2 ( intelligence officer ) with a missile battalion in Korea during 1973 - 74 . From 1974 until 1979 , he served with MI units in Frankfurt am Main and Munich in the Federal Republic of Germany . Following this , Nicholson achieved a foreign area officer specialty . In 1980 , he received his master ' s degree in Soviet and East European Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School and also attended a two year course in the Russian language at the Defense Language Institute . From 1980 - 82 , Nicholson attended the U . S . Army ' s Russian Institute in Garmisch - Partenkirchen , Germany . In 1982 , Nicholson was assigned to the U . S . Military Liaison Mission ( USMLM ) to the Commander - in - Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany . Nicholson was promoted to major in 1983 . Death . On March 24 , 1985 , with Sergeant Jesse G . Schatz , Nicholson undertook his final mission for the USMLM . The mission was to photograph a Soviet tank storage building near Ludwigslust , some 80 miles northwest of Berlin . After approaching the Soviet facility covertly but legitimately through an adjacent forest , Nicholson stepped out of the vehicle and approached the building to photograph it while Sergeant Schatz maintained a watch for Soviet personnel . Unseen by either man , Soviet Sergeant Aleksandr Ryabtsev emerged from the forest and opened fire on the Americans . The first bullet narrowly missed Schatz , and another bullet struck Nicholson . After crying out that he had been hit , Nicholson fell to the ground . Attempting to go to Nicholson ' s aid , Schatz was halted by Ryabtsev at gunpoint and forced back into the USMLM vehicle . Although the Soviets later claimed that Nicholson died instantly , an autopsy indicated that he had actually bled to death while on the ground . Even as more senior Soviet personnel arrived , no medical aid for Nicholson was provided and no one checked his conditions for two hours after he was shot . After an attempt by the Soviets to perform an autopsy of Nicholson and a demand by General Glenn K . Otis that they return the body , Nicholson ' s body was returned to the U . S . Army at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin . On March 30 , 1985 , Nicholson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Legion of Merit as well as promoted to Lieutenant Colonel . The Soviets contended that the response of Sergeant Ryabtsev , as a guard , had been appropriate in confronting an " unknown intruder who did not comply with the warnings of the sentry , " and also stated that the area that Major Nicholson was in was " off - limits " to military liaison mission operations , as well as placing blame for the incident on the United States . Aftermath . At a subsequent meeting between General Otis and General Mikhail Zaitsev , the commander of Group of Soviet Forces Germany , General Otis made it clear that the U . S . Army believed that Nicholson ' s murder " [ was ] officially condoned , if not directly ordered . " Following this , a Soviet diplomat was ordered out of the U . S . and the U . S . canceled plans to jointly celebrate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe with the Soviets . The incident was also the first major foreign policy crisis faced by Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union . The relatively muted U . S . response drew criticism from various sources , among them George Will . Further negotiations over the shooting resulted in the Soviets issuing instructions to their personnel that the use of force or weapons against Allied military liaison personnel was strictly forbidden . However , in 1987 , another incident took place in which Soviet soldiers fired at USMLM personnel , one of whom was wounded . In 1988 , Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov officially apologized for the death of Major Nicholson to U . S . Defense Secretary Frank C . Carlucci at a summit conference in Moscow .