The BBC has excellent coverage with stories and video of the celebrations.
I'm old enough to remember when the Wall was built; it was the physical manifestation of the Cold War for my fellow Boomers. When it was opened I sat in front of my television staring in amazement.
There's a lot of mythology about America's role in ending the Cold War, most of it overblown. Despite conservatives' claims since 1989, Ronald Reagan didn't win the Cold War; if any one individual can be said to have facilitated it more than any other, it was George Kennan.
I went looking for Kennan's response to the Cold War's ending and found this Op-Ed from 1992:
Nobody -- no country, no party, no person -- "won" the cold war. It was a long and costly political rivalry, fueled on both sides by unreal and exaggerated estimates of the intentions and strength of the other party. It greatly overstrained the economic resources of both countries, leaving both, by the end of the 1980's, confronted with heavy financial, social and, in the case of the Russians, political problems that neither had anticipated and for which neither was fully prepared.
I think that's about right. Nonetheless, the events of 1989 will continue to amaze and thrill.
Posted by Linkmeister at November 9, 2009 08:31 AM | TrackBack