We were there. This is what we saw—and perhaps what we should have seen. But who could have predicted Trump?

The Berlin Wall Fell Over a Weekend, 30 Years Later We're Still Trying to Cope with the Consequences Mike Pompeo was in Germany serving with American forces there when the Berlin Wall came down. It seems he has no illusions about the Soviet threat back then, or the threat posed by Vladimir Putin today. This is what he had to say in a speech in Berlin on Friday:  Yet Pompeo's boss, on whose behalf he lies and deceives whenever he deems it necessary, is talking about going to Moscow to hang out with Putin on "Victory Day" next May. "Today, Russia – led by a former KGB officer stationed in Dresden ‒ invades its neighbors and slays political opponents.  It suppresses the independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.  Russian authorities, even as we speak, use police raids and torture against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians who are working in opposition to Russian aggression.  In Chechnya, anyone considered 'undesirable' by the authorities simply disappears." There is something wrong with this picture. My comments on MSNBC on Saturday:  http://us.wildmoka.com/c/clip/7FlqGL At The Daily Beast we ran several stories about the Fall of the Wall which I invite you to read, watch, and share. Among them is an essay that I wrote this week, but should have written 30 years ago:  HAMMER, SICKLE, AND SWASTIKA The Night the Cold-War World Turned Upside Down CHRISTOPHER DICKEY This vivid context by Andrew Nagorski:   THE GREAT ESCAPE The Berlin Wall and the Collapse of Communism in Five Acts ANDREW NAGORSKI And this provocative 2014 essay about the impact of November 1989 on one Vladimir Putin:    COLD WAR How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Radicalized Putin In 1989, as East Germany collapsed around him, a KGB spy in Dresden named Vladimir Putin came to some hard conclusions that would later inform his bellicose geopolitics. MASHA GESSEN We also ran several great photographs by the redoubtable Turnley twins:   REUNION The Fall of The Wall as Captured by Peter and David Turnley PETER TURNLEY And we embedded this slide show that has even more of their extraordinary pictures:  https://vimeo.com/369238488   Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.