>East Berlin was some place I visited and had friends there. I once told the story of the man who went to work and was never able to go home and see his wife. The closed the border in one night. Started at midnight and by daybreak, the border was closed. Families were cut off from each other. When I met him he had not seen her in 40 years other than at christmas and then not every year. Reagan's speach was crucial for its timing and what was already happening in East Berlin (the leadup to the peace protest)politically, but it was Schabowski's mistake that led to the actual fall of the wall at that specific time. Today East Berliners are still sometimes referred to as suffering from 'the wall in the head' due to cultural differences and living for so long under such restrictions and having unrealistic expections of wealth in the west. Interesting perspective on Reagan and the arms race - one I totally disagree with. Reagan was in fact working towards a better arms control
>agreement that had heavy opposition from conservatives at the time. This is an opinion piece, but one that I think is pretty accurate:
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/opinion/10mann.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
>
>
Sacralige! Citing a NYT article regarding Ronald Reagan?

Here's a much better read: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/summer/berlin.html

It tells how Reagan stepped up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park, even though most of his advisors were telling him to not make waves. Dang, I miss him.