19 years ago today

[draggar]

If I remember correctly today is the 19th anniversary that a crowd of East and West German citizens tore down the Berlin Wall.

A major symbol of the cold war / US-NATO / USSR-Warsaw Pact tensions and a sign of what could have been.

It was put up after WWII and survived the bay of pigs but couldn't stand up against determed citizens who wanted to, once again, unite their country.

[Raider]

Nice to someone remembering this historic event, one of Ronald Reagan's great accomplishments.

Let us remind everyone that the wall was put up while JFK was President.

[Acro]

I usually don't correct typos, but this one is too funny," bay of bigs?..

Nice to someone remembering this historic event, one of Ronald Reagan's great accomplishments.

You mean, Gorbachev's accomplishments. Ronny's rhetoric had nothing to do with perestroika & glasnost introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the USSR's communist party.

Ronny was an actor, all the way up to the end. Do you remember the microphone test "We begin bombing Russia in 5 minutes"?

[draggar]

I usually don't correct typos, but this one is too funny," bay of bigs?..

Um, yeah, Bay of Bigs, you know, when um, Col Bigs tried to, um, you know, um, punch the wall??

TY corrected.

You mean, Gorbachev's accomplishments. Ronny's rhetoric had nothing to do with perestroika & glasnost introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the USSR's communist party.

There was good and bad on both sides. Personally, even though it was a political move on the German citizen's part, I like to see it as a symbol of determination of a populace and how they risked a lot to bring their nation together.

It should be a beacon of home to many peope out in the world that the citizens can affect their government in a manner as drastic as this.

[Raider]

You mean, Gorbachev's accomplishments. Ronny's rhetoric had nothing to do with perestroika & glasnost introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the USSR's communist party.

Ronny was an actor, all the way up to the end. Do you remember the microphone test "We begin bombing Russia in 5 minutes"?

Give it up Acro.... Reagan played a major role in helping bring the Berlin wall down, For once, why not give credit where it's due?

And is that a Youtube video your posting?, OH MY! Where's Doc Com?... You better hide before he blasts you for posting a youtube video, In his book, All of them are fake and should not be trusted, even though their UNedited.

[Acro]

Raider, how old are you? I was 17 in 1984 and still remember the day Reagan's little joke about nuking Russia was made public. It was a big gaffe in the era before the Internet. Do some research, both on this and the fact that if it weren't for a softer, progressive Soviet government Ronny would have never achieved anything whatsoever. Think about it: every bilateral agreement before Gorbachev ended up in more tension to the point of reaching - during Reagan's 8 years - the notorious 10 minute gap before pre-emptive nuclear airstrike.

Search about the history behind the fall of Berlin's wall and the role that Gorbachev played before, during and after. Meanwhile, George Bush Senior was pushing troops into Kuwait.

[draggar]

Can we stay on topic and leave the squabbling out? It doesn't matter who's words were said over the wall but more importantly, who's actions took place.

The day before East Germany eased restrictions over people travelling between East and West Germany which is why the people came out.

[Acro]

There was good and bad on both sides. Personally, even though it was a political move on the German citizen's part, I like to see it as a symbol of determination of a populace and how they risked a lot to bring their nation together.

It should be a beacon of home to many peope out in the world that the citizens can affect their government in a manner as drastic as this.

Of course it was a people's revolt. But when Erich Honecker, head of state in East Germany refused to support the changes that Gorbachev had introduced in the Sovient Union, he was ostracized. No Soviet troops moved into Berlin, unlike during the revolution in Czechoslovakia.

Quote:

In the late 1980s Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika, reforms to liberalise communism. Honecker and the East German government, however, refused to implement similar reforms in the GDR, with Honecker reportedly telling Gorbachev: "We have done our perestroika, we have nothing to restructure." [2] However, as the reform movement spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe, mass demonstrations against the East German government erupted, most prominently the 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig. Faced with civil unrest, Honecker's Politbüro comrades colluded to replace him. The elderly and ill Honecker was forced to resign on 18 October 1989, and was replaced by Egon Krenz.

The fall of the Berlin wall was a major event during my early youth. As I watched it on CNN becoming rubble, I could not believe my eyes. I have relatives that lived in West Germany under the constant threat of a nuclear missile attack from the Eastern part. The Cold War ended when its biggest symbol was torn down.

[Donald Aquilano]

Can we stay on topic and leave the squabbling out? It doesn't matter who's words were said over the wall but more importantly, who's actions took place.

The day before East Germany eased restrictions over people travelling between East and West Germany which is why the people came out.

Its important that we remember why it was brought down in the first place. Ronald Reagan policies essentially forced the Russians to allow the wall to come down. It would have never happened without pressure from the US.

Do the Germans celebrate today as a holiday? Just curious.

[fab]

This is the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht as well - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht (IPA: [kr,ɪst.aɫ.n'ɒxt]; literally "Crystal night") or the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom in Nazi Germany on November 9–10, 1938. On a single night, 92 Jews were murdered and 25,000–30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps.[1][2] It is often called Novemberpogrom or Reichspogromnacht in German.

[Acro]

Ronald Reagan was busy with the Iran-Contra scandal, the deployment of the Star Wars initiative (big flop), the Reaganomics that stifled growth for 8 years (although not as bad as George W. Bush) and cracking jokes about the Soviets. The funny part is that now Russia has more millionaires than the US. The Soviets realized that change had to come from within. It's all history, all documented. Reagan was a great actor of a president; which is an oxymoron because he was neither a great actor or a great president.