http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldwar/ en-us Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:39:05 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415704/posts On Christmas day 20 years ago, Nicolae Ceausescu – long time dictator of Romania – was, along with his wife Elena, executed by firing squad just days after fleeing Bucharest, while his tyrannical regime unraveled before the eyes of a watching world.  His demise and the surrounding events are etched in the memory of those of us who watched it all unfold via various news reports. The look on the once strong-man’s face as a massive crowd began to boo during a speech on December 21st, was one of the defining moments of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. ... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415704/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:39:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412743/posts Are you as annoyed as I am by that nauseatingly amorphous phrase “Happy Holidays?” You may be interested to know that the mindset behind the term precedes America’s postmodern love affair with political correctness, tracing back to good ole’ fashioned Cold War Communism (PC’s uglier big sister). Indeed, today’s secularist war on Christmas (yes, the one that, like God, many liberals deny exists) was waged, in large part, when Communists began attempting to supplant the deity of Christ (and His associated Judeo-Christian principles) with the false deity of the State. Ronald Reagan once spoke to this noteworthy historical factoid during... Canada Free Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412743/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:23:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412569/posts President Barack Obama plans to deal with a Dec. 31 deadline that automatically would declassify secrets in more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents by ordering government-wide changes that could sharply curb the number of new and old government records hidden from the public. In an executive order the president is likely to sign before year's end, Obama will create a National Declassification Center to clear up the backlog of Cold War documents. But the order also will give everyone more time to process the 400 million pages rather than flinging them open at year's end without a... Newsmax http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412569/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:30:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411269/posts 25 December [1991] Gorbachev resigns; Russian flag replaces Soviet over Kremlin. CIA.gov http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411269/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:25:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406490/posts The giant gold and silver satellite glittered against the black sky as space shuttle Atlantis closed in on it from below. Commander Hoot Gibson and pilot Guy Gardner flew the approach, while mission specialist Mike Mullane, at the other end of the flight deck, readied the shuttle’s robot arm for a capture. Downstairs in the airlock, mission specialists Jerry Ross and Bill Shepherd waited in their spacesuits for Gibson’s order to go outside and attempt a rescue. The mission of STS-27 had been to deploy the first in a series of new spy satellites that used radar to observe ground... Air & Space Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406490/posts#comment Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:28:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406002/posts Russia plans to replace most of its older (Cold War era) ICBMs in the next five years. But all of these older missiles will not be retired until 2020. Currently, Russia has 538 ICBMs in service, 71 percent of them the most modern Topols (SS-25 and SS-27). Only 56 are the most modern, Topol-M design. About a dozen of these are the road-mobile versions, that avoid destruction in a first strike, by constantly moving around on the roads 200-300 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The 54 foot long transporter for these 46 ton missiles is a 16 wheel vehicle, using a... The Strategy Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406002/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:24:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404399/posts It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for... Air and Space Smithsonian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404399/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:37:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403548/posts It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for... Air and Space Smithsonian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403548/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 09:42:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2399350/posts Cold War Apologetics Malcolm A. Kline, December 3, 2009 A new book on Education And The Cold War: The Battle For The American School attempts to downplay the dominance of the Left in schools. “In other words, schools were not simply the expression of ruling class domination, but, rather, they functioned as the sites and the means of realization of that domination,” the author, Andrew Harman, writes. “Educational ideology was not necessarily the sole product of bourgeois class-consciousness, but rather the product of bourgeois domination of the educational process.” “Educational struggles were dialectical: education was not the pure instrument of... Accuracy in Academia http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2399350/posts#comment Thu, 3 Dec 2009 15:38:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395553/posts MINSK (Reuters) – The United States and Russia will sign a deal this year to cut vast Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons but may miss an early December deadline, a Kremlin source told Reuters on Friday. Diplomats from the two biggest nuclear powers are trying to prepare a new agreement on cutting atomic weapons before the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires on December 5. The new accord will be signed "in a European country" in December, the Kremlin source told Reuters in Minsk, where President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting regional leaders. "We may not be able to do... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395553/posts#comment Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:43:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393275/posts The government has decided to undertake a major replacement of aging military equipment. In many cases, this is essential, because buying new gear basically halted (with a few exceptions, like ballistic missiles) during the 1990s. So most of the armed forces are using Cold War era gear manufactured in the 1970s and 80s. Fortunately, even older equipment was junked as the armed forces shrank 80 percent in the 1990s. According to the new government plan, in the next decade, at least a third of current gear will be replaced, and in some categories (usually high tech), over 80 percent. President... The Strategy Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2393275/posts#comment Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:18:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387121/posts The first years of Perestroika were marked with the growing epidemic of AIDS in the West and the rising popularity of TV call-in shows featuring Soviet and American citizens in Russia. I watched all these shows but one. I know about the one I missed from my grandmother who gave me an enthusiastic recap: “Some American woman asked a question about sex, and a Russian woman got up and said “There is no sex in the USSR!”” Later, this phrase became proverbial. The poor woman became a laughing stock. However, there was some truth to her words as there was... Pravda http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387121/posts#comment Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:01:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383982/posts MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vitaly Ginzburg, a Russian physicist who survived Stalin's purges by working on the Soviet atomic bomb project and later won the Nobel Prize for physics, died in Moscow late on Sunday after a long illness. He was 93. Ginzburg won the 2003 Nobel physics prize for developing the theory behind superconductors, materials which allow electricity to pass without resistance at very low temperatures. He shared the prize with British-American Anthony Leggett and Russian-born U.S. scientist Alexei Abrikosov. But Ginzburg's career as a Soviet scientist almost ended when he took as his second wife a woman arrested in... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383982/posts#comment Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:40:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383609/posts Hillary Clinton Scrubs Ronald Reagan From History Nile Gardiner November 10th, 2009 It’s bad enough that President Obama could not be bothered to attend the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Hillary Clinton’s refusal to even acknowledge the role played by Ronald Reagan in the Wall’s demise as well as the downfall of Communism was highly insulting towards one of the greatest figures of our time, and reeked of petty and partisan mean-spiritedness. The Secretary of State’s remarks yesterday in Berlin completely erased from history the huge contribution played not only by President... Telegraph(UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383609/posts#comment Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:17:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/2383661/posts Once again we prepare to honor those who have served in all of our wars, paying special homage to those who did not return from our wars. Nearly all of us who served in combat zones over our history view those whose names are etched in stone on the many Veterans Memorials as the true heroes of our conflicts. Viet Nam is labeled as “America’s Longest War” due to our involvement in that country from 1950 to the fall of Saigon in 1975. That 25 years pales when considering that after World War Two, we began engagement in a much... Right In A Left World http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/2383661/posts#comment Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:00:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383370/posts The President of leisure has a pretty slow day Monday, highlighting the point that no pressing business kept him from celebrating the fall of communism 20 years after the Berlin Wall fell. Jim Gerraghty of The Campaign Spot on National Review goes over the official schedule for our leader yesterday: Just look at the man's schedule: He had a 10 a.m. daily briefing from the intelligence community, a 10:30 a.m. economic daily briefing, an 11 a.m. meeting with senior advisers . . . and then, right after that, at 6:45 in the evening, he had to sign an executive... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383370/posts#comment Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:51:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383067/posts Many believed. So many were disappointed. 9 minute video, halfway down the page. Excellent encapsulation of life in East Berlin from the '50s to the fall of the Berlin Wall, including indoctrination of children, MEDIOCRE leaders, secret police and of course the wonderful architecture of East Germany. "Thomas Hoepker's photos chronicle 40 years of strange, sad, vicious and sometimes hilarious life in East Berlin. The Economist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383067/posts#comment Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:55:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383276/posts Amidst all of the hoopla surrounding the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall the two men most responsible have been all but forgotten. While German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world dignitaries praised former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the fall of the wall, the two men perhaps most responsible, President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II were all but forgotten. Merkel praised Gorbachev, “You made this possible---you courageously let things happen.” He let things happen? Is she kidding? Gorbachev had no choice but to let things happen. Let’s revisit real history for a moment please. The fall of... kansascity.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383276/posts#comment Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:55:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382721/posts TODAY every news service in the world will transmit the same gratifying and facile images of the destruction of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago: a moment when -- as solemn-voiced announcers will intone in practised cadences -- not just a wall, but an entire era was ground into brick-dust. Such commemorations are easy and agreeable because they invite us to celebrate the ending of something, without requiring us to know anything about what it was that ended. What could be more pleasant than to enjoy an obscurely heart-lifting, lung-expanding sensation of liberation without having to trouble ourselves as to... The Australian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382721/posts#comment Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:54:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382535/posts For many in the GDR, the fall of the Berlin Wall and unification meant the loss of jobs, homes, security and equalityOn 9 November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down I realised German unification would soon follow, which it did a year later. This meant the end of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the country in which I was born, grew up, gave birth to my two children, gained my doctorate and enjoyed a fulfilling job as a lecturer in English literature at Potsdam University. Of course, unification brought with it the freedom to travel the world and, for... The Guardian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382535/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 23:41:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382463/posts The collapse of communism: Reagan, Thatcher and the pope By Joseph A. Cannon Deseret News Published: Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 12:12 a.m. MST Twenty years ago, my wife, Jan, and I were in what was then called West Berlin for a conference. One pleasant afternoon we walked along the Berlin Wall from the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie. During that time, there were significant rancorous anti-Communist demonstrations in East Germany, primarily in the southern part. A German friend, with typical Prussian hubris, dismissed them. "Nothing will come of this, these are just the ineffective rumblings of a bunch of Bavarians."... Deseret News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382463/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:30:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382491/posts BERLIN (AFP) – World leaders joined more than 100,000 revellers Monday for emotional celebrations 20 years after the Berlin Wall's fall and called for a new transatlantic push against threats to global peace. Chancellor Angela Merkel joined luminaries past and present to mark the defining moment in the end of communist rule in Europe, when the crumbling East German state finally opened the despised concrete border on November 9, 1989. Merkel, who grew up in the Stalinist state, marched through the historic Brandenburg Gate with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia,... AFP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382491/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 23:02:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2382468/posts Guitars, keyboards and drums did not topple the Berlin Wall. But for the young people who helped bring down Communist regimes across Eastern Europe in the fall of 1989, pop music was a profoundly subversive force, inspiration and vital tool of protest for challenging and undermining a totalitarian state stricter than any parent. Now middle aged, some of the musicians who played in ostracism during those last gray years of Communist rule gathered in New York over the weekend for the festival Rebel Waltz: Underground Music From Behind the Iron Curtain. Performing at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village...... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2382468/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:32:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382430/posts BERLIN – The celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall started off well enough – former President George H.W. Bush, ex-Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl gathered in front of nearly 2,000 dignitaries in Berlin last week to celebrate their role in bringing about the end of the Cold War. It was a happy affair, with Mr. Bush and Mr. Gorbachev exchanging laughs and smiles as they recalled Nov. 9, 1989...fractures between allies have shown themselves in what has been billed as an event to celebrate unity. One of... Christian Science Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382430/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 21:44:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381872/posts Twenty years ago today, supporters of freedom and human rights cheered and wept for joy as the Berlin Wall was torn down by jubilant young Germans. To so many, that heady day seemed to herald the emergence of a better world. The spectre of communism had finally been laid to rest. Liberty had triumphed over tyranny. The end of the Cold War even led some to proclaim that this was 'the end of history' - which was to say that liberal democracy was now the dominant and unchallengeable force in the world. However, the 9/11 attacks on America tragically proved... Daily Mail (UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381872/posts#comment Mon, 9 Nov 2009 02:57:43 GMT