Comments on: Gorbachev on climate change and the Berlin Wall http://www.sindark.com/2009/11/10/gorbachev-on-climate-change-and-the-berlin-wall/ Temporarily Torontonian Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:01:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: . http://www.sindark.com/2009/11/10/gorbachev-on-climate-change-and-the-berlin-wall/#comment-83726 . Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:23:27 +0000 http://www.sindark.com/?p=6665#comment-83726 "Even to those who had been confident of the eventual triumph of the West, the fall of the Berlin Wall was surprisingly accidental. When 200,000 East Germans took advantage of Hungary’s decision to open its borders and fled to the West, their communist government decided to modify the travel restrictions that imprisoned them. Asked about the timing, the unbriefed propaganda minister mumbled: “As far as I know, effective immediately.” When that was reported on television, the Berliners were off. <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14802240" rel="nofollow">Baffled border guards who would have shot their “comrades” a week earlier let the crowd through—and a barrier that had divided the world was soon being gleefully dismantled.</a> West Germany’s chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was so unready for history that he was out of the country." “Even to those who had been confident of the eventual triumph of the West, the fall of the Berlin Wall was surprisingly accidental. When 200,000 East Germans took advantage of Hungary’s decision to open its borders and fled to the West, their communist government decided to modify the travel restrictions that imprisoned them. Asked about the timing, the unbriefed propaganda minister mumbled: “As far as I know, effective immediately.” When that was reported on television, the Berliners were off. Baffled border guards who would have shot their “comrades” a week earlier let the crowd through—and a barrier that had divided the world was soon being gleefully dismantled. West Germany’s chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was so unready for history that he was out of the country.”

]]> By: R.K. http://www.sindark.com/2009/11/10/gorbachev-on-climate-change-and-the-berlin-wall/#comment-83669 R.K. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:15:57 +0000 http://www.sindark.com/?p=6665#comment-83669 Such humility! "What did my policies of perestroika and glasnost do? Why, they saved history!" Such humility!

“What did my policies of perestroika and glasnost do? Why, they saved history!”

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