For decades, the Berlin Wall stood as the symbol of the Cold War. Built in 1961, it was the line in the sand where western democracy ended and communist rule began. Then suddenly, 20 years ago today, it was gone.
As a reporter, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff hitchhiked overnight to Berlin to cover the story. He is now the senior director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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Daniel Fried was working at the Polish desk at the U.S. State Department when the wall came down. He later became the U.S. ambassador to Poland.
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Sergey Shestakov was the chief of staff for the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations. He explains how the Soviets saw the fall of the wall.
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11/09/2009 :: 11:38:48 PM
BJ Jordan Says:
I pray that the world consciousness of the Berlin Wall coming down and the mass of humanity that fled from imprisonment under a totalitarian regime can be compared with the totalitarian Israeli government building miles of walls, separating Palestinian REFUGEES from their homeland, their families and their freedom.