
World leaders gather in Berlin this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that iconic symbol of the Cold War. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting current leaders like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as past Cold Warriors George H.W. Bush and his counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev. Prominent news organizations are offering retrospectives (CNN, The New York Times) of that epic moment in 1989 when the structure of world politics changed overnight. So much as been written about the Cold War, how it ended and why it ended when it did, that I’m hesitant to offer any new synthesis here. I did, however, note this interesting personal reflection from Chancellor Merkel in her recent address to the U.S. Congress:
Angela Merkel, the first leader of reunited Germany to grow up under communist rule, has worked as chancellor to warm up ties with the United States — a country she couldn’t travel to until she was in her mid-30s. [...] Merkel is the daughter of a Protestant pastor who moved his family to the east when she was very young. She told Congress Tuesday that America “was simply unreachable to me” until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. “The wall, barbed wire and orders to shoot limited my access to the free world,” she said, adding that films and books smuggled in by relatives from the west helped form her picture of the U.S. “I was enthusiastic for the American dream — the opportunity for everyone to be successful, to become something through their own efforts,” she added. Merkel said she flew to the U.S. for the first time in 1990.
In as much as historians will debate the causes of the end of the Cold War for years to come, Merkel’s comments and personal reflections remind us that no matter what they ultimately credit as the cause, the U.S. role as a beacon of hope and a champion of freedom for those living under Communist oppression can never be underestimated.
Photo Credit: The New York Times






