Posted on 11/09/2019 5:14:08 AM PST by Carriage Hill
Leaders from Germany and its allies on Saturday commemorated the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, which helped spur the fall of Communism in parts of Europe.
Officials from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic attended the ceremony at Bernauer Strasse — a site where part of the wall still stands — before they placed roses in the barrier’s gaps, The Associated Press reports.
What a neat, historic picture!
Sadly, the wall and the history of it are being misused by the ultra left wing radical extremists in reference to a certain other wall being constructed in this country. I still have a map that I got as a teenager back in ‘62 of Berlin and the depiction of the wall and fencing in use at the time. It shows the city divided and has lots of statistics on it. A lot of folks have NO clue.
It amazes me that people successfully conflate a wall designed to keep people out with a wall designed to keep people in.
Amazing
Still remains one of THE most moving speeches ever given by a President. I was just completing grad school and it seemed like an exclamation point on that journey.
Intriguing story behind the writing of that speech, too.
Reagan’s ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’ was almost left unsaid, recalls former speechwriter
The passage – which includes the legendary line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” – was almost cut after State Department and National Security Council advisers found them outlandish and provocative, Robinson said. In one case, a White House official thought it was even un-presidential, he recalled.
Robinson then stepped in. He told the president that people in East Berlin would be able to hear him speak. Depending on weather conditions, he might even be picked up in Moscow by radio. Robinson asked if there was anything Reagan wanted to convey to the people listening from the other side.
“And the president said, ‘Well, there’s that passage about tearing down the wall. That’s what I want to say to them. That wall has to come down.’”
For the next three weeks, the National Security Council and the State Department went back and forth with the White House communications team to change the speech. Robinson said seven alternative drafts were submitted, each version missing the call to tear down the wall.
Reagan Trump Washington. Who was the greatest POTUS? I still think Washington, because he walked away when he could have become king and ended this grand experiment before it began. Reagan defeated the evil empire, but didn’t kill it. Trump if he kills the swamp.
I was just completing a 22 career in the USN hunting Soviet subs, when the wall came down and the USSR began to collapse. I was so happy that the USSR had been defeated that I actually cried.
Lol! I’ve just embarrassed myself haven’t I? I was much younger then... :-)
Not a word about Reagan in the whole article.
Not at all. Thank you for your service.
People forget the monstrous evil that was Soviet Communism. The fact that humanity endured hanging under a nuclear sword of Damocles for 40 years until this evil was peacefully vanquished remains the signal achievement of the 20th century. All who took part in that victory made contributions most of the world will never appreciate.
Three key people in that effort, Ronald Reagan, Prime Minister Thatcher, and St. John Paul the Great, do not seem to get much credit for the defeat of Soviet communism. Without their efforts, the Berlin Wall might still be standing.
Was in Berlin in 84 and then again a few months after the wall came down. Spent an afternoon at the Brandenburg Gate watching families be reunited after almost 30 years. They were crying, I was crying. I’ll never forget that day.
I have a piece of the wall in my living room.
On a tour with my mom in ‘62 we crossed at CheckPoint Charlie for a tour of the eastern side. As a 15 year old it pretty much sealed the deal for me that I didn’t ever want to live subjugated like the folks on the “wrong” side of the wall. Still lots of debris from WWII in piles all over the place.
The President, the Pope, And The Prime Minister
Helmut Kohl, as well.
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