Posted on 08/13/2011 2:01:36 PM PDT by Winstons Julia
Addressing the ceremony on Bernauer Street, famously divided by the Wall and now site of a memorial, Mayor Wowereit said the capital was remembering the "saddest day in its recent history". "It is our common responsibility to keep alive the memories and pass them on to the next generation, to maintain freedom and democracy and to do everything so that such injustices may never happen again," he said. At a ceremony at a former crossing-point, President Wulff said the wall had been "an expression of fear" of those who created it.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
“Mr Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!””. President Ronald Reagen.
I was in the states when the Soviets moved to build the wall in Berlin. I had an MOS that seemed certain to be chosen and I expected to be called back to duty. However, my length of obligation ended shortly afterward. Those were nervous times as no one expected that the USA would sit back and let the Russians move unilaterally.
Here’s a weird, “prophetic” bit from Laugh-In, 1969. (They were only off by a year).
Here’s a weird, “prophetic” bit from Laugh-In, 1969. (They were only off by a year).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLlWbDu30PI
Yep, we were called into the ready room and told we were going to deploy to the Fulda Gap, a traditional invasion route into Germany, and we were told that on our right flank would be a French infantry unit and out our left flank would be a French "Heavy(Get the heavy part)Motorcycle battalion.
Since we were an Armor outfit(Combat Command A) with armored infantry in support the idea of foot soldiers on one flank and motorcycles(heavy ones/SAR)on the other didn't exactly thrill us. Fortunately the expected attack didn't come about, probably due to the fact we were all alerted so fully, and we never did deploy to the Gap, but we spent long hours in the tank park waiting for orders.
It sure made for some “interesting times,” didn’t it?
It is interesting to read the reports of the guys who were on the front lines, and how the U.S. ended up merely posturing, while millions behind that Curtain continued to suffer. (I read that the last armed opponent of the communist tyrants was captured in the mid 60s in Poland, 20 years after Yalta and Teheran.)
I was over in Europe before the wall came down.
A German colleague of my father’s managed to get his elderly and terminally ill aunt over to West Germany to visit her family before she was going to die. Then...she magically made it across another border without East Germany knowing it.
She wanted to know Americans and have an America party and we threw one for her with American goodies from the commissary. We had a cookout.
The woman positively MARVELED at a fruit salad that had strawberries and kiwis because they just never got them in East Germany.
She had a great visit and then went back to East Germany and passed away. I’ll never forget to appreciate my strawberries.
Nice story. People were streaming across that border before the wall went up, which made up for the reason they built it. And it violated every agreement the allies had made with the Soviets and their vassal the DDR. We could have stopped it and didn’t! As it turned out 30 years later the Soviets were weak.
Thanks for being here and thanks for being there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85xubRUaYSg
Lots of interesting footage on youtube - here’s a good one from the beginning of it all.
I was also in Europe when the wall came down.
I was not in Berlin... but ... I would imagine that the sentiment amongst the European population was a kind of buzz not unlike the buzz that occurred when they knew the Americans were about to liberate them ...
No offense taken (or given I hope) - just my opinion of two politicos.
We were stationed in West Berlin when President Reagan visited and my wife was in the audience when he made that speech. She still gets goosebumps whenever she sees that speech on TV.
God Bless you both. Good Lord, do we need Ronald Reagan now.
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