Explaining Berlin Wall to young folks
The Iron Curtain — like legally mandated segregation — is one of those things that’s hard to explain to the young folks. It’s hard to explain the Soviet axis, with policies which forbade citizens to leave their country. It’s hard to explain East Germany and the dreaded Stasi, the secret police, who forced people to spy on their neighbors.
It’s hard to explain the decades-long battle between two superpowers that were armed to the teeth with enough nuclear weapons not only so that each could assure the destruction of the other but enough that, if they engaged in all-out nuclear war, would have destroyed the entire planet. It’s hard to explain growing up with that fear.
So it’s worth remembering the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago today and the triumph of the West over Communism. The battle between open and free nations and closed totalitarian regimes was the defining conflict of the 20th century, and the West won. There are lots of reasons why — including courageous political leadership in the West, inherent flaws in Communism and a little bit of luck. The important thing is, it’s over.
For those of you who are fond of throwing around words like Stalinist, Communist, etc., it’s worth remembering what those words really referred to. Those battles, happily, are behind us. There is no better symbol of that than the rise of Angela Merkel as the leader of a unified Germany. She grew up on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall.
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© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
47 comments Add your comment
Shawny
November 9th, 2009
8:45 am
Good post. Many forget how weak we were during Carter’s tenure and how Reagan faced down the USSR and then the wall came down.
A pinnacle moment in world history.
Vinny
November 9th, 2009
8:48 am
Too bad President Obama doesn’t think enough of our country or of liberty to make the trip to Berlin for the commemoration. I mean, what’s in it for him.
I’m just sayin’
Turd Feguson
November 9th, 2009
8:55 am
The kenyan is pro-socialism/communism. Makes perfect sense that the he stayed away. Plus the fact that the Europeans operate on different electrical voltage than we hence his teleprompter wouldve been useless.
mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, Barack the LIAR Obama
November 9th, 2009
9:04 am
It’s easy to explain in three words RONALD WILSON REAGAN!
AH
November 9th, 2009
9:18 am
Can Cynthia even type the name Ronald Reagan? She probably still believes the rabbit killer from Plains is the great leader that ended the cold war.
And yes many of us were alive during that era and remember what socialism and communism mean. We are following in the same footsteps that lead to the path of communism. It’s interesting that you know there are inherent problems with collectivism and yet you still advocate for it in the country. WHY
bob
November 9th, 2009
9:23 am
What should be taught to young people is that people were shot fleeing communism trying to get to the free side of the wall. They then should be taught how America is going dowm that same communist road. All it takes are stupid people that are envious of others that are willing to be led down the road to equality for all. In the end, that equality means equal poor quality of life for all exept the ruling class. If health reform passes, you can bet that the last group of people that are covered by a private plan will be gov employees, they know what they are creating but that is a small price to pay to retain power.
Block #23 (Evidence for Alteration or Delay)
November 9th, 2009
9:35 am
Ms. Tucker:
Freedom – Socialism – Communism.
Please explain to young folks how a nation alllows itself to slip into Communism and that thanks to Obama and the Democrats we are already half-way there with our socialist agenda.
MacArthur
November 9th, 2009
9:45 am
You twits are funny with your, “The U.S. is on the path to Communism,” silliness.
Lex Alexander
November 9th, 2009
9:46 am
Could it possibly get any stupider in here?
Folks, we’re a lot closer to fascism than we are to communism. As for socialism, well, that train left the station well before Obama was elected president.
lmno
November 9th, 2009
9:49 am
I visited Germany in 1992. At that point, sections of the wall were still standing, although most had been torn down. In fact, there was one section that was about 50 yards long and it had been painted with these black sections that had the year and how many died trying to cross it during each year of its existence. I have studied the history, but I still don’t have a good understanding of the actual wall itself. I’ve never understood how it woudl be possible to wall people away like that. I mean, the wall didn’t go on forever. It was 87 miles long to be exact. Its hard for me to grasp how a person couldn’t just travel the 87 miles and go around it.
Steamboat
November 9th, 2009
9:51 am
I guess I’m not really surprised Ms. Tucker failed to mention Reagan’s name.
allen981
November 9th, 2009
10:02 am
Imno asks why they didn’t just go around it; the answer: no cars, no fuel, no food, and complete police oppression. You could not go blocks without being noticed and questioned. I visited Berlin and East Germany six months after the wall came down and you could plainly see the horrible conditions of nearly all East Germans. In Pottsdam, the house where Churchill, Stalin and Truman met was in total disrepair. The entire system was bankrupt, the nation in total ruins and to this day has not completely recovered.
Reagan was a great president who lead the process of change. But the wall came down through the weight of an untenable system that kept its citizens as prisoners by sucking the freedom from their hearts.
Right.
November 9th, 2009
10:13 am
It’s a triuph of FREEDOM, versus Communism, Socialism and oppression. It’ll happen next year here, when the “Great One” is defeated at the polls.
What’s the difference between Communism and Socialism? People in a Communist system KNOW they aren’t free.
Don’t let this country disolve into either. Vote out the DEMS and bring freedom and jobs back to this country.
Stu
November 9th, 2009
10:52 am
Wow. What insight. Superficial sindy is gonna be starving sindy in not too long.
extremerightwing
November 9th, 2009
10:55 am
and let’s not forget that it was that fine example of the defender of freedom, the dimocratic party lead by ted kennedy, joe biden and john kerry (hey…all of these were presidential candidates at one time or another!) who actively opposed President Reagan and his efforts to defeat communism. they ridiculed Reagan, as did tucker, in his characterization of the soviets as an evil empire. ohhhh…he can’t say that, it will stir up tensions between the U.S. and the ussr.
let’s face it, if the U.S. had listened to the dimocratic leftists in this country, the soviet union would still be in power, saddam hussein would still rule iraq and kuwait and quite possibly saudi arabia and the gulf states.
and now, the left is telling us that islam is not a threat…china is our friend and israel is the cause of all of the problems in the middle east so iran should be allowed to build a nuke.
man, with that kind of thinking……well, you get the point.
Jessica
November 9th, 2009
10:57 am
Oppresion doesn’t always come through some sort of violent coup. It can happen one little step at a time. I hope people will wake up and realize that the direction we are heading as a nation — toward socialism and away from economic freedom — will lead to poverty and lack of opportunity for our children and grandchildren. Even worse, a government that limits economic liberty usually ends up taking away other liberties as well. Do you want your government telling you where to live, when and where you can travel, if and how you can participate in religious services or how many children you can have? It sounds a little over-the-top, but it has happened in other countries and it can happen here if we don’t carefully guard our rights.
jt
November 9th, 2009
11:01 am
“Explaining Berlin Wall to young folks”
You don’t have to. Just explain what happened two hundred years earlier with a great American. Nothing has really changed. There are always those that want to trade liberty for an illusion of safety or a WALL. Freedom always wins.
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say ‘what should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
Sam Adams
Guy Fawkes
November 9th, 2009
11:08 am
What to tell the youth of today?
When asked of the Wall, what should we say?
For Heaven’s sake, don’t mention Reagan; cite Carter, Khruschev, Truman or Begin.
Give credit to Gorby, Marshall or Mao–but don’t mention the Gipper; no way, no how.
With moral equivalence, tsk-tsk the arm’s race
That brought communism crashing down on its face.
And don’t fail to note that some people still pine
For life as it was behind that 87-mile line.
Yes,find some old Berliner who thinks freedom queasy
And recalls life with the Wall as simpler and easy.
Describe the Soviet collapse as inevitable decay,
Just don’t name the policies that carried the day.
Dismiss all the speeches, the nukes and SDI
As the pre-Alzheimer’s gleam in a whacked old man’s eye.
And whatever you do, when you speak of the Fall
Never utter these words: “Tear down this wall.”
Jimmy62
November 9th, 2009
11:12 am
If only Obama and the left would stop using the same centrally planned economy theories that caused communism to fail everywhere it has been tried.
Let me give you a hint: No politician or group of politicians is smart enough to anticipate all the consequences of their actions, many of which will be more negative than the positives gained from their actual intent. These unintended consequences make it so that the government that governs best is that which governs least.
The Snark
November 9th, 2009
11:14 am
Ya’ll either have short memories or didn’t pay attention in history class. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the cumulative effect of several decades of consistent American policy toward Germany — starting with Truman and Eisenhower, forcefully enforced by Kennedy, maintained by Johnson and Nixon and the supposedly “weak” Carter. Reagan deserves credit for holding firm — though he very nearly gave away the store before his aides pulled him back from proposing mutual nuclear disarmament to Gorbachev — but Reagan did not single-handedly bring about the fall of the Wall or the USSR. If you had to single out Presidents for drawing the line in the German sand over Berlin, it would be Truman (the ‘48 airlift) and Kennedy (for staring down the Soviets in the crisis of 1961.)
Block #23 (Evidence for Alteration or Delay)
November 9th, 2009
11:15 am
To all of you libs. who can’t see the forest for the trees …………. they will come for you first.
“When civilized man can no longer stand the horror of war and refuses to fight, then he will surely be killed or enslaved by the uncivilized who can.”
Author Unknown
Sunshine and Thunder
November 9th, 2009
11:25 am
Keeping score for the Nobel Committee:
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul. Three people responsible for the liberation of a hundred million people and the end of the Cold War. Number of Nobel Peace prizes between them: ZERO.
Barack Obama. Community organizer. One Nobel Peace Prize.
Yasar Arafat. Terrorist. One Nobel Peace Prize.
BS Aplenty
November 9th, 2009
11:43 am
Only Cindy Tucker could compare Communism with Segregation and keep a straight face. The better comparison would have been Slavery.
DT
November 9th, 2009
11:53 am
Lex at 9:46, spot on with fascism (it is couched in disingenuous words like “Progressives”). But don’t forget that Fascist Germany and (moreso) Italy were LEFTIST. You could run the Nazi party platform of the 20s and it would look like the liberal left today.
A couple other contributors (besides the US) to the fall of the Soviet Union…the Pope and the fact that the price of oil crashed in 1986…the Soviet economy never recovered…and today’s Russia is always one good oil crash away from causing problems (to mask all the other difficulties in the country).
Bottom line..freedom wins over repression because people like being FREE (wish our current government understood that)
Joan
November 9th, 2009
12:01 pm
Hey, we are battling communism right here in the United States, and right now. With our Marxist leaders we are in way more trouble than we have ever been. ATTEND THE TEA PARTY AT THE CAPITOL TONIGHT AT 5:30. (now you have seen it in the papers!!)
mike
November 9th, 2009
12:06 pm
“For those of you who are fond of throwing around words like Stalinist, Communist, etc., it’s worth remembering what those words really referred to. ”
Yeah, but if liberals want to call conservatives fascists, that is cool.
Fang1944
November 9th, 2009
12:11 pm
Did this intelligent, thoughtful article have to bring on an avalanche of right-wing paranoia and Reagaqnolatry?
The doddering old actor who set a record for taking vacation did not bring down Communism. It was the inherent economic weakness of Communism plus the courage of the people who struggled against it during all those years.
booger
November 9th, 2009
12:12 pm
Obama apparently doesn’t think it’s all that important. He turned down an invitation to be a major player in the ceremonies. Guess he thought he may have to give credit where credit was due.
If Obama didn’t do it, it’s just not that important.
Turd Feguson
November 9th, 2009
12:26 pm
Joan
November 9th, 2009
12:03 pm
LMAO!!!
Question
November 9th, 2009
12:44 pm
Amazing — a Cynthia post without the word “Obama” in it, though we see she still managed to get “segregation” into her post…..baby steps Cynthia!!!
Block #23 (Evidence for Alteration or Delay)
November 9th, 2009
12:57 pm
Headline: “Dem Congressman says Obama called opposition: ‘Teabag, anti-government people’… ”
Yep ………. that’s our prez. What a professional.
dewstarpath
November 9th, 2009
1:03 pm
- How come all of the far – right wingers always act like
they know SO MUCH, yet post so many spelling and
grammatical errors for the world to see ?
– Most of the advancements that you see in today’s
weaponry came about during the Carter and Clinton
years. Reagan (and particularly Bush 43) benefitted
from those advancements. Most of the strategy and
tactics that East German police used in that era were
snatched up by the far right in this country during the
reign of King Bush the Crusader. Increased surveillance,
border encampments, CIA renditions, waterboarding, etc.
And as far as continuously calling Obama a communist –
you would think the USSR still exists. That nonsense comes
from US history in the south – anyone that the Dixiecrats
opposed was a communist. That ship sailed decades ago –
the wack jobs using it today are just a pathetic shadow of
their forebearers.
Sunshine and Thunder
November 9th, 2009
1:19 pm
“– Most of the advancements that you see in today’s
weaponry came about during the Carter and Clinton
years”
Is everyone finished laughing yet?
William
November 9th, 2009
1:26 pm
I have a piece of the wall and I am reminded of it everyday!
Turd Feguson
November 9th, 2009
1:54 pm
“– Most of the advancements that you see in today’s
weaponry came about during the Carter and Clinton
years”
Sunshine and Thunder…Im completely stunned, numb, aghast and yes flabbergasted. Perhaps the ensuing laughter will begin sometime this evening.
Independent
November 9th, 2009
1:55 pm
Great line Joan…to educate Imno about the wall. After WW2, Germany was split in two; West Germany (Free US/France/GB) and East Germany (Communist USSR). It’s a little bit like the US today, the northeast, west coasts, and urban areas are welfare states (E.Germany) and the rest of the US are pro-freedom areas (W.Germany). Berlin was located in East Germany. Berlin was split in two, the west side (not to be confused with our West End) was free and the east side was communist (think Cynthia McKinney’s district). The communists build a wall around West Berlin. The wall encircled west Berlin, thus one couldn’t go around the wall because it had no beginning and no end. The wall wasn’t meant to keep the west Berliners in West Berlin it was meant to the keep the East Berliners and the East Germans from getting into West Berlin. If they kept walking to find the end of the wall, they’d still be walking today. Pascual Perez eventally figured out that there was no end to I-285.
ROY MADRON
November 9th, 2009
2:03 pm
In 1992, a great scholar and philosopher, Stafford Beer, wrote
“We are looking at the rubble that remains of two competing empires. To the political analyst, Soviet communism and Western capitalism are quite different and wholly opposed. To the cybernetician, they both started from a common ancestor, Dysfunctional Over-Centrality, that leads inevitably to collapse.”
The USA is slightly less over-centralised than the USSR but significant parts of it are already disappearing down the plug-hole of history along with the more vulnerable bits of its fellow-’corporatocracies’.
As someone who lived through WW2 and the Cold War at uncomfortably close quarters I must say that the sheer bile, ignorance and idiocy of the hostile responses to Ms.Tucker’s inoffensive little article should be a matter of deepest shame to anyone who cares about the future of your potentially great but sadly benighted country.
LOLO
November 9th, 2009
2:21 pm
jt, Sadly most Americans cannot even understand the haunting words of Samuel Adams. He’s just the “beer guy” to the folks.
LOLO
November 9th, 2009
2:21 pm
jt, Sadly, most Americans cannot even understand the haunting words of Samuel Adams. He’s just the “beer guy” to the folks.
dewstarpath
November 9th, 2009
2:25 pm
- Turd –
You and Sunshine deserve each other.
clyde
November 9th, 2009
2:34 pm
To the Snark,
Right.
To Roy Madron,
Without comparing the Wall to segregation this article would have been inoffensive.That comparison could well have been left out and dealt with another time.Legally mandated segregation fell before Ms. Tucker could have felt it’s full wrath.Other than that one blurb this is an excellent article,but Ms.Tucker’s bitterness shows in many small ways.
DAVID
November 9th, 2009
4:09 pm
Revisionist history from Ms. Cynthia….She would LIE….even when the truth would save her life…..Never get truth from the Atlanta-Obama-Journal…….never…..never…never
Tom Middleton
November 9th, 2009
4:13 pm
CT-There is no better symbol of that than the rise of Angela Merkel as the leader of a unified Germany.
Yeah, Cynthia, especially when she wears that special dress of hers. Woo-Hoo!
mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, Barack the LIAR Obama
November 9th, 2009
4:47 pm
Imno, I think it was probably the guards with GUNS that kept them inside the wall.
Lex Alexander
November 9th, 2009
5:09 pm
[[But don’t forget that Fascist Germany and (moreso) Italy were LEFTIST. You could run the Nazi party platform of the 20s and it would look like the liberal left today.]] — DT
No, it really wouldn’t, DT; just because Jonah Goldberg says it doesn’t make it so. Did you even read what I linked to? And you really ought to read William Shirer, as well.
Tom Middleton
November 9th, 2009
6:15 pm
DT: But don’t forget that Fascist Germany and (moreso) Italy were LEFTIST. You could run the Nazi party platform of the 20s and it would look like the liberal left today.
Nice try, DT, but communism represents the extreme LEFT in political philosophy, and fascism the extreme RIGHT. Hitler and Mussolini were fascists, yes, and with their elitist love of the white race, their belief in their own mental and physical superiority, and their absolute paranoia and hatred of all minorities and all else disagreeing with their self-serving philosophy, I think Nazi Germany far more closely resembles conservative Republicans these days than any kind of Democrat. Like I said, nice try, but it won’t work!
Chana bat-Shalom
November 10th, 2009
7:41 pm
The battles of socialism, Communism, Marxism, etc are not “behind us”. We have an admitted socialist in the White House, who may not even be a genuine American by birth.
So how can you say, “it is behind us”?