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Thread: Berlin Wall and Ronald Reagan Video

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    Default Berlin Wall and Ronald Reagan Video

    President Ronald Reagan's demand that the Berlin Wall be torn down became a reality. Video with his actual words.

    See video

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    Quote Originally Posted by wordcreatorushtwf View Post
    President Ronald Reagan's demand that the Berlin Wall be torn down became a reality. Video with his actual words.

    See video
    I have that an many of his other speeches on my mp3 player.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wordcreatorushtwf View Post
    President Ronald Reagan's demand that the Berlin Wall be torn down became a reality. Video with his actual words.

    See video
    Funny you should mention this.

    The Fall of the Berlin Wall - After twenty years, isn't it time to dispel the myth of Reagan?

    As the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall fast approaches, I find myself suffering a mild internal conflict. I welcome the opportunity to revisit the Nov. 9, 1989 occasion, particularly because viewing the images and newsreels of that day - the mass of humanity gleefully celebrating, chipping away at the Cold War barrier - inspire in me the same optimism I felt as an American teenager watching it on television.

    Twenty years later, I'm also feeling some apprehension as the world prepares to mark the occasion. As I still reside within the U.S., I'm presently dreading the fact that as America celebrates, it will do so with a spoonful of Reagan mythology.

    Too often, Americans mistakenly trace a direct line of causation between President Ronald Reagan's leadership and the Berlin Wall's breach. If you count yourself among those whom subscribe to this historical revisionism, don't feel bad. As Gerard DeGroot, professor of history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, illustrates within his Oct. 30 Washington Post book review, even historians are capable of the same error.

    DeGroot succinctly describes the source of the confusion:

    People are, however, messy. They clutter up the precise narratives imposed upon the past. Now, 20 years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, historians are competing to offer an explanation for the demise of communism. For some, it's easier to think of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria as a bloc, manipulated and exploited by the Soviet Union and ultimately freed by the United States. That conception delights neoconservatives eager to extract parables to illuminate the present.

    He reminded me of Goldilocks in his comparative review of three new books on the collapse of communism. One treatment gives Reagan too much credit, another none at all, but the third - Professor Constantine Pleshakov's "There is Freedom Without Bread!" - gets it just right. (Emphasis Added)

    His explanation of the 1989 collapse respects the complexity of Eastern Europe, yet his account is both clear and beautifully lyrical. His greatest strength lies in not being burdened by doctrine; he finds worth in communists and in Reagan. Of all the books that mark this anniversary, his is one that must be read.

    According to DeGroot, Pleshakov's treatment effectively avoids the mistakes of other historians by accurately describing the Eastern bloc. His analysis rightly takes into account the vast differences between states formerly dominated by the Soviet Union.

    In a separate DeGroot review, posted Sept. 27 at DenverPost.com, he praises the myth busting of Michael Meyer, author of "The Year that Changed the World - The Untold Story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall." Again the myth of Reagan's impact is dispelled along with the persistent American notion that "…dictatorial regimes crumble when confronted by righteous indignation."

    The real story, Meyer says... is more complicated — and interesting. Reagan still plays a role, but as diplomat, not Rambo. His contribution came in accommodation; his willingness to talk to Gorbachev gave the Soviet leader the confidence to break molds.

    Gorbachev, furthermore, did not tear down the wall; he merely suggested that change would be tolerated. The events themselves were played out by a cast of thousands in Budapest, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw and Bucharest. There was no script; this was an improvisational drama conceived by Camus, with help from Kafka and Moliere.

    The Soviet Union came to the realization that its empire was no longer affordable. Like other imperial powers, it cut and ran, leaving colonial subjects to sort things out for themselves. Chaos naturally resulted.

    DeGroot's review of Meyer's book gets to the crux of my own frustration. My apprehension in regards to Berlin Wall anniversary doesn't stem so much from those who cling to a skewed view of history; one in which Reagan brazenly challenged, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," followed by the wall magically obeying the American president's command.

    Rather, what I find disheartening is what Americans have selectively eliminated from their collective memory; that is, diplomatic engagement was Reagan's contribution to the Berlin Wall's demise. His was a significant role, but it shouldn't be propped up as a primary cause.


    Further, I don't think it's a stretch to see this historical misconception visited upon the present when conservative pundits declare President Obama's and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emphasis on engagement in foreign policy as a sign of weakness. They, as so many Westerners do, ignore Reagan's real success by parroting an invented one.

    It is my hope, as the world honors the twentieth anniversary of the fall, that Westerners remember the importance of diplomacy in international relations. I'd like them to view the anticipated ubiquitous 1989 newsreel replays of the joyous occasion - of which, you'll find one embedded below - and resist the inclination to pat themselves on the back for their nations' contributions to the Berlin Wall's collapse.

    Instead, they should offer congratulations to millions of participants whose celebration, twenty years ago this Nov. 9, provided us with the uplifting spectacle of people emerging from oppression, welcoming and embracing their previously stifled potential. They should, however, consider that once the iron curtain was lifted, opening the Eastern bloc nations to the West, that lacking the forced collectivism of the Soviet Union was no guarantee of success.

    http://www.care2.com/causes/politics...yth-of-reagan/

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    Wow a liberal dissing Reagan.

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    "diplomatic engagement was Reagan's contribution to the Berlin Wall's demise"


    Let me just translate the term "diplomatic engagement" for anyone on the right who might be reading this. This is what is generally referred to by conservatives today as "singing Kum-ba-yah with those who seek to destroy us..."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Southern Man View Post
    Wow a liberal dissing Reagan.

    Saying he had a significant role as a diplomat is a diss?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Southern Man View Post
    Wow a liberal dissing Reagan.
    The truth seems to be too hard to handle in your neck of the woods.

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    Quote Originally Posted by christiefan915 View Post
    Saying he had a significant role as a diplomat is a diss?
    "His was a significant role, but it shouldn't be propped up as a primary cause."

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    Quote Originally Posted by tom prendergast View Post
    The truth seems to be too hard to handle in your neck of the woods.
    How ironic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Southern Man View Post
    "His was a significant role, but it shouldn't be propped up as a primary cause."
    It wasn't a primary cause. Anyone who knows even the slightest bit of Soviet history at this point knows that the implosion began in the '70's.

    The fall of the wall was inevitable before Reagan even took office. Was he a catalyst for a shorter timeframe? You'll have an easier time arguing that...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Onceler View Post
    It wasn't a primary cause. Anyone who knows even the slightest bit of Soviet history at this point knows that the implosion began in the '70's.

    The fall of the wall was inevitable before Reagan even took office. Was he a catalyst for a shorter timeframe? You'll have an easier time arguing that...
    Whenever a Democrat ran the White House the USSR got stronger. Reagan comes along and decides to win the Cold War, implements a strategy to do so and then follows through. These are facts, and undeniable.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Southern Man View Post
    Whenever a Democrat ran the White House the USSR got stronger. Reagan comes along and decides to win the Cold War, implements a strategy to do so and then follows through. These are facts, and undeniable.
    I believe in religious freedom, so if you want to believe in the mythology of Reagan as opposed to the reality, I won't infringe on your right to believe whatever you have to in your worship...

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    Mikhail Gorbachev is much more responsible for the fall of his nation than Ronald Reagan is. He tried to introduce freedom while not significantly reforming the totalitarian state, and it was destined to fail. If the USSR had gone the route of China and crushed protesters, it would still be here today.
    "Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34

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    Quote Originally Posted by Onceler View Post
    I believe in religious freedom, so if you want to believe in the mythology of Reagan as opposed to the reality, I won't infringe on your right to believe whatever you have to in your worship...
    On to another subject I see. Heck, why not? Jesus is God! We have no king but Jesus!


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