There is one political myth that has always stuck in my craw. And that is that Ronald Reagan was responsible for the Berlin wall being torn down. If there is just one shining example of the dishonest arrogance of our political parties, this is it. For several years Pope John Paul II led the charge to get Poland out from under the rule of the Soviet Union. Eventually he, along with the people of Poland, was successful. As a result, many other countries realized they too could gain their freedom from the Soviet Union. East Germany was one of those countries. And they succeeded. The first thing they wanted to do was remove the half-century old symbol of Soviet rule, which was the Berlin wall. On the verge of this happening, Reagan’s advisors & writers saw an opportunity to get their man some political brownie points. Reagan was already scheduled to travel to Venice for the annual summit meeting of the seven largest industrialized nations. They planned Reagan’s itinerary to include Germany so he could stand in front of the Berlin wall and give his “tear down this wall” speech. When the wall did come down they put their political machine in motion to make sure Reagan got the credit, or at least the lions’ share of the credit.
Reasonable, unbiased people know the Berlin wall was coming down anyway. There was nothing to stop it short of military force by the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan had absolutely nothing to do with it. This was a direct collateral result of what Pope John Paul II & the Polish people had succeeded in doing. Now I am not an advocate of religious leaders. To know that, all you have to do is read my point of view on that subject on this weblog. But if just one person can be given credit for bring down the Berlin wall it is Pope John Paul II. And even he could not have done that without the support of the Polish people. But American history will not record it that way because the dishonest political machine of Reagan’s era has made sure of that. And Reagan was very pleased to get that unwarranted credit for his own prosperity.
