13/08/2011 8:43:24 pm
The Berlin Wall 50 Years. Walls can have two very different purposes; protecting someone inside or keeping someone inside. The Berlin Wall, whose construction started 50 years ago today, had the latter purpose. The Communist leaders claimed to build a perfect society, but hundreds of thousands of people fled Eastern Germany every year. So the dictators made a prison of it all, killing anyone who tried to escape. Wikipedia has a detailed description of the idea, propaganda and construction of the Wall. Obviously, the West responded to weakly. It remained until 1987 when US President Reagan challenged this absurd tool of oppression by standing in front of it and saying to Soviet leader Gorbachev "Tear down this Wall!". Reagan was then condemned by many, but his view must be seen as the only moral standpoint. Two years later, as the communist system was cracking all over, the wall also came down.