On May 12, 1949, the former Soviet Union lifted its 11-month blockade against the city of West Berlin, inside the then communist nation of East Germany. The blockade had been overcome by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital, life-saving supplies to West Berlin’s more than two million citizens. The West Berliners to this day are still very appreciative of the American military presence in the western sector at the time, which guaranteed their continued freedom.
The still divided city of West Berlin was my first assignment following my training with the Agency back in 1978. West Berlin was at the time still considered an ‘occupied city’ from World War II, with each of the allied powers from the war, the U.S., British, French, and Soviets governing a section of the city.
It was a unique experience for me, with West Berlin being a little island of freedom deep inside communist East Germany. West Berlin itself was a vibrant, cosmopolitan European city, whereas East Berlin governed by the Soviets was drab and gloomy, with some of the war damage from the World War II bombings still visible on some buildings and parts of the city. The Berlin Wall cut an ugly scar across the city, with the western sectors completely surrounded by East Germany.
The people in East Berlin walked the streets with their heads bent down, looking at the pavement in front of them, rarely raising their gaze or offering greetings to passerby. In contrast West Berliners walked confidently, with heads held high and taking in the sights and views offered by their city that had been rebuilt from the ashes of war. “Guten Tag” and other greetings were common between pedestrians in the West.
In the western sectors one could walk right up to the Berlin Wall and touch it, while on the other side of the wall, the communist side, there were guard towers with armed East German border guards with orders to shoot to kill anyone trying to escape to the west. Mine fields, sensors, attack dogs, and other barriers prevented East Germans from getting anywhere near the wall, though many tried. As attested to by the memorials on the western side of the wall placed in memory of those who were killed trying to escape the oppression of the communists.
There were also viewing platforms on the west where one could walk up a flight of steps and peer over the wall into East Berlin. I recall seeing that for the first time and thinking to myself how I wish every American could make the trip to West Berlin and see what I was seeing. They would have so much more appreciation for what it means to be an American and living in the freedoms we often times take for granted.
Sadly nowadays far too many of the younger generation don’t even know that the Berlin Wall existed, nor do they know any of the stories of those who died trying to make it to freedom in the West.
Certainly there are exceptions, but many of the youth of today live in a world that never has known the former Soviet Union, or of the other countries of the old Soviet Bloc that also had totalitarian governments which restricted the freedoms of its’ citizens. They’ve never seen the wreaths and crosses placed against the now nonexistent Berlin Wall that recognized those individuals who so desperately craved freedom that they were willing to risk their lives trying to reach it.
I often think back to my time in Berlin, reliving those days when the City of Berlin was a focal point between the Cold War which pitted the freedoms of the West against the oppression and evil of communism.
It disturbs me when I see the red banners of communism on the streets of America, most often at our colleges and universities, the supposed places of education and enlightenment where one would think that the truth about communism would be exposed.
Unfortunately the academic elites in our country continue to more often than not espouse a socialist-communist message to the young impressionable minds of our youth. Continuing the indoctrination which started decades ago when the Marxists saw our educational institutions as a breeding ground for their ideology, and ultimately a way to weaken and perhaps even defeat the United States of America. Something they could never do on a battlefield.
I pray today that the reality of communism as evidenced by the Berlin Wall and all of those memorials to the fallen, will resonate with our youth more than the trendy pronouncements of people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who offer nothing but a drab and gloomy future that I saw firsthand under communist rule in the City of Berlin.