World leaders from across the globe have recently attended ceremonies in Berlin to mark the occasion when the Berlin Wall fell twenty years ago.
It was an historic event, to be sure, and certainly one which is worthy of world recognition. For more than twenty-five years, the wall stood as a symbol of oppression, and when it finally fell, it marked the beginning of a new era, a day when, at last, citizens of the all-but-extinct communist Soviet satellite state known as the German Democratic Republic-better known by most as East Germany-could finally travel freely past the border that had previously marked the east and west boundary of the German nation, bringing with them their hopes, dreams, and plans for the future.
Now, once again, we have a united Germany, by God. And don't you forget it.
4 comments:
There is new information, that Thatcher told Gorbachev, her being for German unification is only rhetoric.
Reagan's speech was never heard in East Europe.
The Stalinist bureaucracy was becoming cumbersome, and fell.
Ren-
Do you think world leaders always speak candidly to each other behind closed doors any more than they do during public appearances? It might well be true, but I would still take any such information with a grain of salt if I were you. World leaders, even such as Thatcher, are the world's penultimate backstabbers and hypocrites. That's a quality they all share, regardless of ideology.
As for the speech, the East Germans might not have heard it through official channels or through the government controlled media, but I can pretty much promise that a good many of them heard it, some live, some after the fact.
Public speech by world leaders, is almost strictly for domestic consumption. In the case of Iran today, it's ridiculous.
Thatcher unfortunately was honest overall.
The walls fell because Gorbachev OK'd it.
Don't misunderstand, Thatcher was probably being brutally honest as far as her stated views towards communism, and her expressed concern about a reunification of Germany might well have been based on historical considerations. I'm just reminding you that, regardless of her ideology, she was a politician, and to politicians, double-speak comes as part of the package. It's second nature.
Gorbachev just saw the hand-writing on the wall. He knew it was only a matter of time before it all came crashing down. He wanted to be remembered as the man who stepped out in front and took control of history's reins, as opposed to being remembered as a hopelessly entrenched communist hack and apparatchik who tried desperately, and failed, to keep a decrepit, corrupt, criminal system afloat.
I'm not taking anything away from him, just giving him credit for having the good sense to see what was going to happen inevitably anyway. He could have used it to his own personal advantage. He could have jumped off and absconded with his own private personal fortune and lived the rest of his life in ease and maybe even luxury. Instead, he took the high road and tried to guide that rusty heap in for as smooth a landing as possible, probably at greater personal as well as political risk to himself than we can ever know.
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