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.