Twenty years ago today: The Berlin Wall falls

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Twenty years ago today, the most reviled symbol of Communist oppression got torn down by both the people it oppressed and the people it was intended to intimidate as the era of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe came to an abrupt and obvious end. Cheering throngs filled the streets as the Berlin Wall fell, with East Germany’s soldiers reduced to the role of spectators as their state, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist entirely. It was easily the climax of decades of Cold War — and a moment of undeniable victory for the US and Western Europe:



One of the most impassioned speeches by an American President helped accelerate the collapse two years earlier:

“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”