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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (56512)	9/30/1999 1:20:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Well, many more people than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao have been leaders, but they have also been leaders, and it is true that being a leader does not make one right. Nor does it necessarily mean that one is awful. I thought I would bring up the take of the Berliner Morgenpost on Mr. Reagan: BM/ddp Berlin - "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" In a speech in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin ten years ago, on June 12th 1987, US president Ronald Reagan addressed the number one of the then Soviet Union, the secretary-general of the Communist Party Mikhail Gorbachev, with this dramatic appeal. Ronald Reagan's appeal, laughed at in the East as reverie and dismissed in the West as being a utopian dream, was to become reality a good two years later with the collapse of East Germany. After the fall of the Wall on 9 November 1989, Brandenburg Gate was officially opened on December 22nd of that year. The most prominent figures at this opening of two pedestrian walks were the Federal chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Kohl, and the prime minister of East Germany, Hans Modrow. Ronald Reagan had come to the western part of Berlin in June of 1987 on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city. Attempts to organize joint celebrations of the West-Berlin senate and East Germany had failed due to disagreements regarding the status of Berlin. And thus, at the end of May, the party leaders from the countries of the Warsaw Pact, among them Mikhail Gorbachev, met in East Berlin for a summit meeting. The French president Francois Mitterrand visited the western part of the city on 11 May; Britain's Queen Elizabeth II followed on 26/27 May. No one spoke of tearing down the Wall. On the contrary - Bonn was busy preparing the first state visit of East-German leader Erich Honecker to West Germany. Ronald Reagan alone dared to utter the carefully considered but more propagandistically meant sentence "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down the Wall". The US president, who at his inauguration had called for fighting against the "evil empire" and had set the course for increased armament, saw himself at the height of his power. The US had managed to put economic pressure on the Soviet Union with its "star-wars" program known as SDI, if Moscow wanted to keep pace. Failures in its foreign policy, such as the fateful invasion of Afghanistan, left the Soviet Union as a leading power in the East with no more scope. Mikhail Gorbachev, who tried to change course with "perestroika" - his policy of change - and extensive concessions in regards to disarmament, couldn't carry his reform plans through. Old views of the Soviet Union's policy on Germany, which regarded German unity as inevitable in the long run, were back on the political agenda. In the face of this development, Ronald Reagan's words in front of Brandenburg Gate - "the Wall will not be able to withstand freedom" - was by no means just utopic dreaming in the eyes of many Americans. However - even on Reagan's last day in office, on 19 January 1989, East Germany's Erich Honecker still shot his mouth off. "The Wall will remain as long as the conditions that had led to its construction are not changed," he explained. "It will still exist in fifty and even in a hundred years." After his presidency, Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy traveled to Berlin once more in September 1990. This time he was able to walk through Brandenburg Gate - it was totally covered with scaffolding, but it was indeed open. Two predictions that Reagan - who is meanwhile suffering from Alzheimer's disease - had made in his famous speech in front of Brandenburg Gate have not come true until now: he had envisioned Berlin becoming the "center of aviation" and a venue for the Olympic Games. Translated by Stephen Krug. [TOP][HOME] Translated by Stephen Krug. [TOP][HOME] ©Berliner Morgenpost 1997

To: epicure who wrote (56512)	10/1/1999 12:55:00 AM
From: Krowbar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I agree totally with your assessment of Reagan. You saved me the trouble of saying the same stuff. I also "predicted" the breakup of the U.S.S.R. before Reagan. I only wish that we had SI back then to prove it. I finally got it all figured out. E should be president, you should be V.P. (no offense, I just like E that much), and Joan should be Secretary of State. We need to notify the Reform party now. I don't think they want Buchannen. You would be the dream team. Edwarda could be Secretary of Interior, and Blue could be Atty. General. Ya, that's the ticket. Del