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Freedom Watch
The Spirit of 1989
Only yesterday, it seems, decades of oppression disappeared overnight. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, the most dramatic symbol of the most grotesque human tyranny ever to plague the globe, was opened. Free, free at last, shouted residents of half a continent and beyond.
So dramatic was the ensuing revolution that it is easy today to forget that communism ever existed -- or at least what it really meant. Decades of totalitarianism impoverished people spiritually as well as economically. Those decades of oppression were swept away in an instant. What may be the most important liberating moment in human history should give us hope even as we despair about the future of our own nation and of Western civilization.
Communism's body count dwarfs that of fascism and Nazism. The latter was uniquely monstrous in its attempt to eradicate an entire people. But communism was unmatched in its endless slaughter. The Black Book of Communism, written by several European intellectuals -- attacked for their effrontery in criticizing Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and other well-meaning mass murderers -- estimated the death toll at more than 100 million. And the killings continue in such communist hell-holes as North Korea.
Today the former communist states range from robustly democratic to unpleasantly authoritarian. However, all have moved light years beyond what President Ronald Reagan so accurately termed the Evil Empire. Freedom now is widely viewed as the normal human condition.
What seems inevitable today was not obviously so in 1989, however. As the year dawned, the Soviet bloc was stirring. In Russia Mikhail Gorbachev had unleashed perestroika and glasnost; several satellite regimes were trembling.
Still, liberty had always seemed to end up stillborn in the Soviet empire. Somewhat less thuggish apparatchiks, not cosmopolitan liberals, replaced brutal murderers in the USSR. The 1953 East German demonstrations, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and the 1968 Prague Spring were all summarily crushed. Poland's Solidarity movement was suppressed in the dead of cold night in December 1981.
But 1989 was different.
Hungary led the way. The man who betrayed his colleagues in 1956, Janos Kadar, had been deposed the previous year. The murdered revolutionary leaders, most notably Imre Nagy, were reburied. Plans for multiparty elections were announced. The Communist Party was dissolved.
In Poland the Solidarity union stirred anew and the communist leadership retreated. The regime was foolish enough to hold free elections -- which it lost, dramatically.
Hungary tore down its wall with Austria. It didn't matter so much to Hungarians, who already had been allowed to travel. But Budapest's action freed everyone else in Eastern Europe, who had been allowed to vacation within the Soviet bloc. In particular, East Germans began streaming out of their country and then through Hungary. Others fled to the West German embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The human flood destabilized East Germany, the formerly bedrock Soviet satellite that trailed only Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania as Eastern Europe's most rigid and authoritarian regime.
Demonstrations first occurred in the so-called German Democratic Republic during the spring over yet another predictably fraudulent election. By the fall there were weekly marches in Leipzig: The GDR leadership temporized, causing the number of protesters to multiply. Communist Party boss Erich Honecker wanted to shoot them; rather than commit mass murder, the Politburo dumped Honecker. On November 4 a million people gathered in Alexanderplatz in East Berlin to demand the end of communism.
On November 9 the regime opened the Wall. In fact, the desperate communist leadership had decided only to relax travel restrictions, but Politburo member and spokesman Guenter Schabowski misunderstood his colleagues' decision and announced at a press conference that the border was opening at that moment. Tens of thousands of people gathered at still closed checkpoints, causing befuddled border guards to stand aside. The Berlin Wall was open, never to be closed again. Within a year the ugly, brutish regime, which had distinguished itself by shooting desperate people seeking to escape to freedom, disappeared.
The other European communist autocracies fell as well. Bulgaria dumped its ruler of 35 years, Todor Zhivkov. The tottering Czech regime yielded power in the so-called "Velvet Revolution." A mixture of popular demonstrations and military revolt unseated the monstrous Ceausescus in Romania. As revolution erupted they fled by helicopter. Their pilot observed: "They look as if they were fainting. They were white with terror." On Christmas Eve they were executed after a drumhead court martial.
The newly free countries have been bedeviled by problems. Of most concern is Russia's retreat towards authoritarianism. Nevertheless, the collapse of communism remains a fantastic triumph of the human spirit. With minimal bloodshed, average people overthrew a gaggle of tyrannies. What some thought to be impossible became real, as the desire for liberty trounced the desire for power.
There were heroes in all of the communist countries. Average people willing to speak out, demonstrate, and demand their rights as human beings. Average people willing to say no to the apparatchiks who had so long lived off the workers they were supposed to represent.
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Appleby| 11.6.09 @ 6:49AM
Nevertheless, the children of the West long for communism in their own countries; since they no longer study history (or much of anything else) and will not listen to anything people say who were there and saw for themselves, because what do The Wrinklies know anyway -- they bend their dreams toward turning America into Cuba and Canada into Lebanon as their heads fill with dreams of The Big Rock Candy Mountain where they will have everything they want the nanosecond they want it and somebody else will pay....
I saw the Berlin Wall go up, and to my amazement I lived to see it come down. Sadly I may live long enough to see Berlin Walls built by ignorant children rise again....
Richard Baker| 11.6.09 @ 7:03AM
Of course, the Kenyan won't be attending the celebrations. He's for the guys who built the Berlin Wall. When it came down I was much surprised. Never thought in my lifetime that I'd see such a thing. The idea to remember from that day is that the human spirit craves Liberty and Freedom. Freedom uber alles!
Northern Rebel| 11.6.09 @ 9:37AM
President Anti-Christ's real reason for being a no-show, is because they wouldn't let him speak at the Brandenburg Gates, a place reserved for people of accomplishment.
Obviously, they didn't realize he is an accomplishment unto himself, just by being.
Of course you are right, R. Baker, he is a devout communist, and he's hoping to be one of the great ones in history.
He's just refining his particular method of killing off hundreds of millions of freedom loving human beings.
In his infinite wisdom, he has decided that the most effecient way to do it in the 21st century, is to destroy the last bastion of personal liberty, the United States of America.
Unlike Cubans, or Asians, Americans have no place to run to, if they must flee tyranny. So destroy the US economy, install a health care system to moniter dissidents, probably with a microchip that contains medical records, (as well as party affiliation), and control is possible.
With the microchip, (He is even floating a bar code chip to keep track of purchases), he won't even have to mark your skin with the number 666!
Wow, I sound like a nut!
Keep dozing, and seeking comfort in that mesmorizing tone of voice, and see what kind of place you wake up to!
Al Adab| 11.6.09 @ 10:22AM
How sad when the nation, which above all others, stands for human liberty and freedom fails to remember the mosdt significant liberation of the second half of the 20th century. An event BTW in which this nation played a major role.
For the American President (Al Naqis) to ignore the event is abhorant and reveals more about his world view and his perception of his own nation, than about the importance of the celebration. Simply put, he cares little about human freedom as he is solely focused on creating entitlement slaves of the population.
Margie| 11.6.09 @ 11:07PM
Hey, what ever happened to Marc Jeric? Reading this made me think of him. He always speaks to truthfully.
Ken (Old Texican| 11.6.09 @ 12:26PM
Doug
Thank you for that.
I read an essay here today about "Reaganism is dead".
Wow! I rmember the Democrat slogans about Mr. Reagan during the campaign. I remember the firestorm when he announced implementation of "StarWars Defense".
I shall always remember his simple sentence "We win, they lose."
I wonder when Toddard will chime in and tell us how horrible we are to have supported the hopes of those millions of slaves....and having a leader who made it stick!
Pingback| 11.6.09 @ 1:42PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Spirit of 1989 [spectator.org] o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 11.6.09 @ 2:55PM
Do you think we can find another "Reagan" out there now, when we need it the most? But then again, Reagan did follow Carter, so maybe history is repeating itself, again (I hope).
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.6.09 @ 4:25PM
Lullabye's
If absolutely no one will step forward. Darn it, I will quit sipping a scotch now and then, and try to earn your votes.
I'm too darned old, and my back is a mess. I would rather us all gather around a DEMINT.
Heck, I would gather around a Culberson or a Cornyn...or even
Rick Perry (Texas governor...small letters).
I cannot wait for Sarah's book to get here. That lady has courage. If she chooses not to run...and win...she might point us the right direction.
If no one else will serve, I will.
You guys have read my deepest thoughts here. You have also watched me be silly and/or fun.
Money is no object.....but darn it I like being silly from time to time.
OKOK I will quit. (wrong)...being silly...(fib).
A year from now...ya'll might realize my jokes were deadly serious.
The most important thing I would like to tell you is who I would gather around me as "chief advisors"
#1 Dick (Darth Vader) Cheny. He is the single most brilliant person I have ever sat a table and negotiated with.
#2 A couple of the editors of this site.
#3 Sarah Palin if she will serve.
#4 General Pretraus (sic) and I will learn to spell his name correctly.
#5 General McChrystal.
#6 Ed Young...Baptist minister.
#7 Al Adab off this site
#8 Adam Smith off this site
#9 Big J off this site who has joined us for dinner.
#10 Secretary of State...my clone. (smile)
#11 (Gulp) Rush Limbaugh....dollar a year man.
#12 Dr. Richard Bean, my best friend and the most brilliant five president 'dollar per man' for five Presidents for economics.
#13 Joe "Plumber" to kick my hiney when neccessary.
#14 Secretary of the Treasury: Mark Santos.
#15 Mr. Ronald Reagan (ghost) who I shall listen to every single night.
#16 My lovely wife of course...to whom I shall listen to every single night.
#17 Mark "h" OUR WEB GUY.
#18 Mr. Barack Obama... as our 180 degree compass.
#19 Al Gore as our court jester...
OK, you folks get the drift...
Best regards all.
Ken
Al Adab| 11.6.09 @ 5:14PM
Ken:
Thanks for the great compliment. I look forward to serving in the cabinet of the Republic of Texas.
Margie| 11.6.09 @ 11:16PM
That sounds excellent, Ken!
Here am I! I'm good on the phones. I'd help in your campaign. :^)
Margie| 11.6.09 @ 11:19PM
I truly believe Sarah Palin is a female Ronald Reagan. Though I have to admit I prefer a man for the job, if she did run I would surely campaign and vote for her!
Lullaby's, Legends andLies| 11.7.09 @ 1:07AM
Ken: You got my vote for President (but can we vote tomorrow instead of waiting?)!!
I love your advisors, especially Darth Vader (Can we build a real Death Star now that he's on board?), and as your moral compass advisor, The former President, MR Obama. Whatever his "great" idea might be, you just do the exact opposite, and get it right. That's brilliant!!
DaveS| 11.7.09 @ 10:53PM
Palin is not the female Reagan. Please stop with the unearned superlatives. Reagan may be imitated, but never duplicated.
Margie| 11.8.09 @ 2:04PM
LOL. Point taken. But you cannot deny she has those same qualities and quite the same spirit, can you?
Mark Pettifor| 11.6.09 @ 3:01PM
Mr. Bandow,
Something that everyone seems to be missing in all the nostalgia and reflecting back on that historic time is that human nature doesn't change much.
When I see statements like "Communist Party boss Erich Honecker wanted to shoot them; rather than commit mass murder, the Politburo dumped Honecker" and "Within a year the ugly, brutish regime, which had distinguished itself by shooting desperate people seeking to escape to freedom, disappeared", the question that comes to mind is this: Are you saying that the Kremlin killers at some point just changed their minds, and decided that well, heck, we're gonna lose this ideological war (not to mention the guns and bullets war with weapons and all that other stuff that we made to back up our ideology and give it teeth) so we might as well cut our losses and become happy little capitalists?
If we really won not only the Cold War, but the ideological struggle between freedom and the totalitarian ideologies in the East, then why hasn't anyone who was part of the group of strategists who plotted for a generation the destruction of the West come forward to admit that they were wrong, the West was right, freedom is their new god, and, oh, regarding those hundreds of millions of people we killed, well, sorry 'bout that, can we be friends now?
Nope. I'm not buying it. Russia (and China) are just as much a threat now as they were then, only it's different kind of threat. When your enemy fakes death, and you believe it, you're in twice the danger as you were before.
Soviet defector Golitsyn told us all of this in his book "New Lies For Old." If only people had paid attention to what he wrote.
By the way, he predicted that the Communists would tear down the Berlin Wall 5 years before it happened. Makes one want to go read what else he had to say, doesn't it?
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.6.09 @ 4:52PM
Please see my commkent above. Thank you.
Northern Rebel| 11.6.09 @ 7:10PM
Old Tex didn't nominate me, but I'd be proud to serve as national alarmist!
L,L,&L,:
Congratulations on your, (GAG) Yankees.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 11.7.09 @ 10:56AM
Northern Rebel: I look forward to the rivalry between our Great States starting anew next spring. Without the Red Sox, it would be a very boring year in the Bronx.
But I still hate them, so don't get me wrong!!
Let's Go Ken for President!! (Baseball's over now)
Ken (Old "Texican)| 11.6.09 @ 7:46PM
Northern Rebel,
Where would you be best to serve...joking aside?
contact me at kbjudgeroybean06@gmail.com
Nick| 11.7.09 @ 12:33AM
I was stationed in West Germany from Aug. '88 to July '90. About an hour from the East German border, near the Fulda Gap. Even with all the Pils and Hefe's I consumed while there, I remember the Fall of the Wall very well.
Although the video shown is usually from Thursday, November 9th (I guess because that's when Brokaw and Rather finally showed up), the first big protest at the Wall was 5 days earlier, on Saturday, Nov. 5th. There was almost a riot near Check Point Charlie.
I know this, not because I was there, but because I was supposed to be there. Man, was I ticked. I wasn't a very good soldier. I was in trouble that weekend.
But a buddy of mine was there. In fact, his face was on the front page of Stars and Stripes the next day in the middle of huge crowd of protesters that had just gotten chased off the Wall.
Also, it cannot be stressed enough the role Czechoslovakia played. When they refused to force East Germans to return, and kept the border open into Hungary so the Germans could escape, the end was on it's way. When you're in the middle of events, it's hard to see what's coming.
I remember when I was being driven to the airport to go on leave for Christmas a month after the Wall came down, we passed a weird rusty car with strange plates I had never seen before. It was white, filled to the brim with household goods, a young couple with an infant, and an elderly lady.
My buddy told me it was an East German car. He said he had seen more and more ever since the summer. I remember thinking, "Where are they going" and "How strange the West was going to be for them."
And now, I wonder where they are now and how much their lives changed after they escaped to freedom.
Margie| 11.7.09 @ 1:40PM
Nick,
Thank you for your service to our country. I really liked reading about your personal experience, and appreciate you telling us about it!
God bless you~M.
Nick| 11.7.09 @ 11:50PM
Thanks Margie.
God Bless.
Pingback| 11.7.09 @ 5:32AM
Doug Bandow » Blog Archive » The Fall of the Wall: 20 Years On links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jim O'Brien| 11.7.09 @ 11:38AM
But now Obama and his Socialists in Congress are trying to resurrect the USSR here in the USA, with government-run health care, price controls, punitive taxation, war on private enterprise, war on journalists who dare to report the truth, and a secretive Shadow Government of Czars to carry Obama's edicts. The ACORN Administration is working hard to tear down the Constitution and freedom. It detests dissent.
Northern Rebel| 11.7.09 @ 3:18PM
BTW, L,L,&L,
I don't live in Taxachussetts. I lived most of my life in socialist Connecticut, and spent the last 10 years in the 23rd district of northern NY, where I'm preparing to return , as soon as I quell a family crisis in Ct.
I love the hills and mountains up here, if not the politics!
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 11.7.09 @ 3:55PM
Northern Rebel: So you're one of those "Tug of War" New England fans, stuck between NY and MASS, but the Red Sox won out with you in the end? Oh well too bad!! Myself?, I was born in the Bronx, but grew up in lower Upstate NY, and only about 10 miles away from the Connecticut border, so I know the State pretty well, or at least the Danbury area pretty well.
At the moment, I'm still stuck over here in Iraq, for a few more weeks before I finish up my most recent tour. And I don't care if the New England area if full of a bunch of unrepentant Liberals like I know it to be, I can't wait to see them all again. Even Liberal Massachusetts would be a sight for sore eyes to me right now. I miss the damn snow!!
And when I get the chance to take some leave after I get back, I'm driving all over our Great Country, from Florida to Maine and back again. Spewing CO2 from my old Lincoln Town Car while driving on I-95, to help promote that Global Warming I've been hearing about (I like it when it's warm). But if there's one good thing I can say about being in Iraq, and this is the only thing I can think of that's good about Iraq, it makes you really come to LOVE your Country more than you can imagine. And that's why, we've got to do everything in our power, to save America, and the American way, and our collective future's too. Damn I can't wait to get home! (GBA!! & LGY's!!)
Margie| 11.8.09 @ 2:08PM
God bless you, LL&L, and thank you for your great service to our country. I wish you success and good health and hope you get home safe.
Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 11.9.09 @ 11:05AM
Thanks Margie. I'm planning (hoping) on making it down to the folks house in Florida for Thanksgiving Dinner,.. finger's crossed!!
Roy| 11.8.09 @ 12:17AM
In 1989 I was 13. I remember the whole time younger than that, thinking I was probably going to end up fighting the Russians when I grew up. I couldn't believe how fast it all happened. In fact I'm probably one of the last people to have been taught the wondrous joys of Soviet Socialism in 6th grade.
It is a bit funny, like somebody that was born in, say, 1932 and knows that anybody much younger than them is going to have no clue what The War was. This is already true about my own younger siblings.
It's worth remembering that the reason they had to build The Wall in the first place was the existence of a free alternative. Whatever else we do wrong, as long as we keep ourselves free tyrants will never be able to rest easy.
Roy| 11.8.09 @ 12:19AM
Oh, and one more thing:
Tomorrow in West Bengal(India) another mopup of old Cold War business may well happen, as the Communist Party of India loses their grip on a state they have ruled over for the last 32 years.