Last night PBS aired a documentary on the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. The first half was excellent. It showed the flood of escapees from East Germany who found freedom by simply crossing the street in Berlin. To stop this population exodus, the communist government erected the wall in 1961. Now the flight to freedom meant risking death as in the case of Peter Fechter who was shot at the wall and allowed to bleed to death before the Vopos removed his body.
The second half was terrible. Reagan was the bad guy. Gorby was the good guy and no mention of Thatcher and the Pope. As I watched, I wondered why Bush #1 was given so much credit. He had virtually nothing to do with the reform movement in East Germany or the economic and military pressure on the Soviets. Reagan led those efforts. Then I noticed this review in the Houston Chronicle. The Houston PBS station produced the documentary. That explains it all.
For the real story, read Paul Kengor’s The Crusader. Kengor documents the Reagan’s plan to bring about the fall of communism.
