"Totalitarianism Don't Last Always"

The fall of the Berlin wall caught the world by surprise. For months, East Germany's beleaguered communist rulers had tried in vain to silence a growing opposition movement and stem the tide of people pouring out of the country. On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, an East German official held a press conference to announce new government travel policies but inadvertently announced that crossings to the West would be opened "without delay." Within hours, thousands of East Berliners began lining up at checkpoints near the Wall. At first the border guards tried to check passports, but they quickly realized it was futile. The masses surged through. Many of them ran. Crowds of West Berliners waited on the other side, hugging strangers and popping champagne. The scenes were stunning. By the fall of 1989 cracks in the communist bloc had started to emerge. But few people imagined the Berlin Wall would disappear anytime soon.

By the time Reagan went to Berlin in 1987, he and Gorbachev had developed enough trust to gamble on change. In the weeks leading up to the speech, several Administration officials lobbied to have the "tear down this Wall" line removed, arguing that it was unrealistic, unpresidential and potentially embarrassing to Gorbachev. But Reagan and his speechwriters insisted on keeping it in. To the President, the line was an invitation as much as a challenge: calling on Gorbachev to tear down the Wall might actually inspire him to do it. "If he took down the Wall," Reagan told an aide after returning from Berlin, "he'd win the Nobel Prize."

Reagan was right. (In 1990, Gorbachev not only won the Nobel but was named TIME's Man of the Decade.) Neither Gorbachev nor Reagan was directly responsible for the fall of the Wall; rather, it collapsed from its own weight. But Reagan's speech presciently identified Berlin as the proving ground of Gorbachev's intentions to open up the communist bloc. If Gorbachev truly sought peace and liberalization, Reagan said in Berlin, then he should let the Wall come down. In the end, Gorbachev did, and the rest of the Iron Curtain followed. Allowing democracy to spread through Eastern Europe in 1989 was Gorbachev's greatest accomplishment; in this drama, Reagan was the supporting actor. Nevertheless, as Sean Wilentz, a liberal historian, wrote in 2008, Reagan's "success in helping to finally end the Cold War is one of the greatest achievements by any President of the United States--and arguably the greatest single achievement since 1945 (Read Full Article)

Backed by the Soviet Union, the East German government began erecting its "anti-fascist protection barrier" in the early hours of August 13, 1961, to end a mass flight of its citizens into capitalist West Berlin.

Initially a makeshift fence of barbed wire, it was built up into an imposing 156-km (97-mile) concrete wall ("Mauer" in German) that encircled West Berlin and was patrolled by guards with orders to shoot anyone who tried to escape.

According to a study this year, at least 136 people were killed at the Wall between 1961 and 1989 while trying to flee.

Thousands of others managed to evade the minefields, guard dogs and watchtowers, using schemes including tunnels, aerial wires and hidden compartments in cars to make it to the West.

Not a single shot was fired when the Wall fell two decades ago. That night turned into a giant city-wide party, with easterners roaming the streets of West Berlin in disbelief and residents from both sides embracing each other.

World leaders hailed the ordinary people who helped bring down the Berlin Wall and said the historic events of 20 years ago showed nations were capable of rising to new challenges, from terrorism to climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders from Britain, France and Russia greeted tens of thousands who braved pouring rain at the Brandenburg Gate on Monday evening to celebrate the anniversary of the Wall's collapse, which paved the way for German unification and the end of the Cold War.

"Together we brought down the Iron Curtain and I am convinced this can give us the strength for the 21st century," said Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany and crossed the Wall herself the night of November 9, 1989. (Read Full Article)

German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process in which the German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG / West Germany), and Berlin was united into a single city-state. The start of this process is commonly referred to by former citizens of the GDR as die Wende (The Turning Point.). The end of the unification process is officially referred to as the German unity (German: Deutsche Einheit), celebrated on 3 October (German Unity Day).

The East German regime started to falter in the summer of 1989, when Hungary opened a hole in the Iron Curtain. It caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans going to West Germany via Hungary. The Peaceful Revolution was a series of protests by East Germans. The Peaceful Revolution led to the GDR's first free elections on 18 March 1990, and to the negotiations between the GDR and FRG that culminated in a Unification Treaty, whilst negotiations between the GDR and FRG and the four occupying powers produced the so-called "Two Plus Four Treaty" (Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany) granting full sovereignty to a unified German state, whose two halves had previously still been bound by a number of limitations stemming from its post-WWII-status as an occupied nation. The united Germany remained a member of the European Community (later the European Union) and of NATO.

Die Wende marks the complete process of the change from socialism to reunification. (Read Full Article)

   Though much credit belongs to former President Ronald Reagan and USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, the fall of Communist Russia initiated by the fall of the Berlin Wall was inevitable because the masses and the human spirit will only tolerate repressive totalitarian governments so long before change will topple such governments or systems. Thank God that the fall of Communism was a relatively peaceful one, no small part of which was Gorbachev not militarily repressing dissent and protest. The repressive Muslim regimes in Iran, Saudi Arabia and other nations, as well as the repressive Zionist regime in Israel, will also fail, non-violently or violently, because justice and freedom always triumphs over injustice and repression. It is the Designed Order of things, as I see it. Totalitarianism, like trouble, don't last always.

tags: politics  berlin wall  ronald reagan  mikhail gobachev  totalitarianism  

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