Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was surely one of the momentous milestones of the 20th century - and it was all on TV for the world to see. (What a contrast to China and North Korea today!) It marked the end of the Cold War which had brought us the Korean War, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, the Iron Curtain, the Bamboo Curtain and U.S. support for non-communist leaders like Mobutu in Zaire. When the wall came down so did the post World War II world. In some ways, it was an easier time because it was so oversimplified. We knew who the "good guys" and the "bad guys" were, and the bad guys had that wall as proof that they were evil. In the last twenty years, our world has evolved into a far more complicated geo-political system. Who can label the the good guys and bad guys in eastern Congo with all the groups fighting and changing sides with head spinning speed? The same thing about Bosnia in the 1990's. So many sides instead of just two with clear differences. I once told a Conflicts, much to their amusement, that I was kind of nostalgic for the Cold War! I meant I wish I could know who is right and who is wrong as I thought I did while growing up in the Cold War. Life was simpler, scarier, but simpler.
What do you think the legacy of the Berlin Wall is? Was life really simpler or was that all an illusion?
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I am copying Adam Shapiro's status because I think it is relevant to this post:
ReplyDelete"Adam Shapiro: the Extramural Age began 20 years ago today, and ended about 5 years later as a new wall went up in Israel."