Tulsa World: Berlin, 20 years ago

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Berlin, 20 years ago
And the wall came tumbling down

East German border guards are seen through a gap in the Berlin Wall after demonstrators pulled down a segment of the wall at Brandenburg gate on Nov. 11, 1989. Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press File

By MIKE JONES Associate Editor
Published: 10/25/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 10/25/2009 4:06 AM

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

— President Ronald Reagan

Those words were uttered by President Ronald Reagan in one of the more dramatic moments in his administration while visiting West Berlin and standing before the infamous Berlin Wall. The Great Communicator was at his best on that day.

It was the most riveting statement by an American president in that city since President John F. Kennedy proclaimed, "Ich bin ein Berliner" in June 1963.

Reagan made his forceful request in June 1987. On Nov. 9, 1989, the wall fell and eventually the Soviet Union along with it. Next month the world will celebrate, and it should, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War. Berlin and Germany were partitioned after the close of World War II in a deal made by the victorious allies, which included the Soviet Union. Then in 1961, in what seemed like overnight, the Soviets began to erect the wall that would divide not just a city but a world for most of the next three decades.

What was known as West Berlin was virtually a democratic island in a sea of communism.

The separation of the city and the country, as well as all of the Soviet satellite countries, was famously dubbed the Iron Curtain by former British

Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a March 1946 speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. It was widely considered the speech that defined the Cold War that was about to engulf the world for the next four decades. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent," Churchill said.

On newspaper front pages, in movie newsreels and on the evening news were almost daily stories of East Berliners attempting to scale or even dig under a wall dotted with guard towers and checkpoints. Many tried to make it to West Berlin, some were successful, others were not. I can still remember the newspaper photos and the film of the man being pulled across the wall by friends in West Berlin. Guards had orders to shoot anyone trying to escape. Most, however, settled into a dreary life in communist East Germany.

For those of us who grew up during the Cold War, the threat posed by the Soviet Union was real and frightening. Most of my early years were spent waiting for "the bomb" to drop. We felt especially vulnerable where I grew up in Seminole. Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City was only about 50 miles away and we had been assured that Tinker was high on the Soviets' list of places to bomb. That meant that we were toast in Seminole.

But the days of duck and cover passed and the country settled into a tense but familiar standoff with the Soviets. Olympic games came and went and we all found the East German women athletes almost comical. They didn't really seem to try too hard to disguise the fact that they all looked like men.

My longtime friend and former colleague Alex Adwan, a decorated veteran of the Korean War, often half-heartedly lamented the demise of the Red Army in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It's not that he longed for the Cold War again, but he realized that in those times, although they were dangerous, there was a certain sense of security. We knew what we were up against. It was one big army versus another big army. And we believed deep down that the Soviets weren't crazy enough to actually start a nuclear war.

When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Soviet Union dissolved, the threats in the world changed. Countries that once were controlled by the Soviets became wild cards. As long as the Soviets were around they were able to keep countries such as North Korea and even China somewhat in check.

Now we have the very real danger that some half-baked country with an insane leader (think Iran or North Korea or even Venezuela) would not hesitate to use a nuclear weapon. And there is the looming danger of terrorism. Dirty bombs, suicide bombers and sleeper cells have taken the place of the dreaded Soviet nuclear attack.

Maybe someday this threat will go the way of the Soviet Union. But I suspect that if that does ever happen, there will be some other threat to take its place.

The world is much better off without the Berlin Wall. We should celebrate its demise and learn from its fall that there is hope and that all obstacles can be overcome. It should reinforce the idea that freedom, no matter how messy or how difficult, is still the goal and the right of all people.

That is the lesson of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Mike Jones, 581-8332
mike.jones@tulsaworld.com www.tulsaworld.com/jonesblog By MIKE JONES Associate Editor

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	Report Comment tfromtulsa, Tulsa (10/25/2009 8:01:30 PM) Zoltar - I wondered that myself. Perhaps if we highlight every nth letter in his editorial, there will be a hidden message about illegal immigration. I'll get to work cracking the code.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/25/2009 6:21:23 PM) It's scary to think someone, someday is going to do the unimaginable. After the loss of a world class city, a drifting could of radiation makes huge swaths of the earth uninhabitable, and millions of people are affected. Only then will the world wake up and do something about these weapons.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/25/2009 7:18:17 PM) We have one now. There hasn't been one president that wasn't proud of his country. Just some are a little more misguided and naive than others. But they all have been proud to be americans. Now as for trust. That's a different question all together. But for say Nixon, and when it was all over, we were grateful for what he accomplished, I think all were trusted as well. The current president will have his measure of success and years to come we will know if he too has past the test of past presidents.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/25/2009 7:27:14 PM) A Chinese second is not very long sr.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/25/2009 7:58:47 PM) OK, I'll take the Chinese second. If that's all you'll give. But I was hopeing for just three more years.
	Report Comment Zoltar, Boltar (10/25/2009 6:18:17 PM) Could Mike be using some symbolism here and trying to equate Mexico to East Berlin? I think yes!
	Report Comment sr71v3, (10/25/2009 7:11:25 PM) Wouldn't it be wonderful to once again have a president that was PROUD of America - A president that we could trust and respect?
	Report Comment sr71v3, (10/25/2009 7:24:38 PM) FW - "We have one now." FW, I'm sorry but I don't believe that for a Chinese second.
	Report Comment sr71v3, (10/25/2009 7:56:45 PM) FW ... I thought I was being generous.
	Report Comment Eagle 4, Tulsa (10/25/2009 8:41:06 AM) Not enough, Mike! The wrongly Righties never forgive and you'll not get a brownie nose for quoting their Great Actor.
	Report Comment Rocketman, Tulsa (10/26/2009 1:42:22 PM) Now we have the very real danger that some half-baked country with an insane leader (think Iran or North Korea or even Venezuela) would not hesitate to use a nuclear weapon. So, should we do a pre-emptive strike?
	Report Comment droopy, wagoner (10/25/2009 6:33:09 AM) Talk about irony, the great liberal blowhard quoting Ronald Regan!
	Report Comment mr.peabody, country side oklahoma (10/25/2009 9:07:37 AM) Mike, it was a very pivotal moment and should be given it's due recognition. Democratic countries don't attack thier neighbors.Reagan worked diligently to get to that moment in Berlin. Very good article Mike.
	Report Comment mr.peabody, country side oklahoma (10/25/2009 9:36:04 PM) tfromtulsa-general prosperity liberalization gate.
	Report Comment Groove Monster, San Antonio (10/26/2009 1:53:48 PM) A survey published by a German magazine revealed that one in seven Germans wanted the Berlin Wall back. Of the country’s 82 million inhabitants, 15% were in favour of the wall because they believed that they were better off during the 28 years that Germany was divided by the Berlin Wall. Adding the link to the whole article on my profile. Interesting that both sides say economic issues are the primary reason.
	Report Comment rockfan, broken arrow (10/25/2009 6:16:14 PM) Mike's editorials are improving!
	Report Comment Thunder196, Tulsa (10/25/2009 6:00:59 PM) Wouldn't it be impressive to see North and South Korea remove their barrier. I know it's a far stretch to think about, if only, at least those that lost their lives in the Korean War, would have descendants to see their loved ones sacrifice, was not in vain.
	Report Comment RAJOKC, (10/25/2009 10:45:38 PM) Reagan worshipers seem to have amnesia when it comes to his 'accomplishments'. When several hundred Marines who were a part of the international peace keeping force in Lebanon were killed when a truck bomb blew up their barracks, Reagen ordered all US forces to leave Lebanon. To Dick Cheney and Sara Pallin that would make him a 'surrender monkey'. When he implemented his tax cuts upon taking office the country went into a deep recession. Reagen saw the error of his policy and implemented the highest tax increases in history to stem the red ink his tax cuts produced. Social Security was in trouble and working with Tip O'Neill, Reagen passed the largest increase in Social Security FICA taxes, an increase in FICA taxes that made Social Security solvent for the next fifty years.
	Report Comment atheist, (10/25/2009 11:30:24 AM) We need one of them Berlin type walls on our southern border don't we Mike?
	Report Comment :), (10/26/2009 7:44:42 AM) t, Mr. Jones hasn't written a piece on immigration in some time. Yet, here you are - week after week - stalking the editor with your snarky comments, trying to fan up a flame that isn't there. It's pretty obvious that YOU are the one with the problem, not Mr. Jones. Try to let it go. There are plenty of other stories online that you can spin into a squabble about immigrants. The Oktoberfest story is practically untouched...

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