A milestone in history

It was 28 years ago today that the unthinkable occurred.  The Berlin Wall came crashing down.   Donald McClarey has the lowdown.

Unlike the wall proposed by our government along the Mexican border, this wall was meant to keep people in.  Because despite suggestions to the contrary, the USSR and its empire was one of terror and oppression, poverty and darkness.  Those who tried to get into the West were sealed off, and the Berlin Wall was the symbol of that barrier to freedom.

It was there my entire life.  I assumed, even in the later days of college, that it would be there for years, if not decades, to come.  Sure, by then we could tell the Cold War was fizzling.  In 1980, we assumed that nuclear war was inevitable.  Before that, we assumed that the Cold War was the last chapter in history.  It would go on until someone pulled the trigger, then goodbye humanity.

By the late 80s, we could tell things had changed.  The Left has forever attempted to minimize the impact of Reagan in those developments, but even a secular liberal college student back in the day knew better.  Sure, Reagan wasn't alone, and you had Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, and endless heroes working behind the Iron Curtain to see this day happen.   But ignoring Reagan's roll would be like ignoring Washington's roll in America's revolution.

As a side note, since I've gotten to know people from the Easter European world, including those who lived under Soviet rule, I'm shocked at just how loved Reagan is - overseas.  In various European countries, he's a veritable hero.  As the Hungarian wife of one of my best friends explained, he was the one president who didn't sacrifice Eastern Europe to the Soviets.  He actually did something to free them from their misery.

That wasn't the end, of course.  In fact, it marked the beginning.  Some might say the beginning of the end.  But on this day, 28 years ago, there was a glimmer of hope and a cause for celebration as what we began to believe in the last days of Reagan proved to be true: that contrary to what we had feared for decades, the Cold War could, and did, end peacefully.  And at least for a moment, America had won.