The Fall of the Berlin Wall

I returned to Berlin after the wall came down, and found that bits and pieces of it eerily remained, framed, here and there, like curios of a prehistoric age.

I now tell the story of the wall's abandonment, and of the life that sprang from it not only for Berlin, but for the entire world, the symbol of the end of a seventy-year long menace. And undertaking this in the Wiley series, the length brief, but the story luxuriant, has had for me a special appeal."

—William F. Buckley Jr.

Starting with the Four-Power agreement in post WWII Germany, we see the numerous policy offenses initiated by the USSR as they grasp for power by forming the Eastern Bloc of socialist countries. Nowhere is this skewed outlook more evident than in war-torn and politically seperated Germany...specifically, it's capital in Berlin. We see immediately, the subversion encountered by the citizens of East Berlin and their realization that life would be best lived outside this repressive regime. The outpouring of the population to the West is, of course, the reason that the Wall is erected...thus symbolically subjugating Eastern Europe to over 30 years of repressive treatment. Communist/Socialist leaders from Walter Ulbricht to Erich Honecker are analyzed and dismissed as their policies reflect the repressive attitude that Communism endows on it's subjects...while at the same time it's leaders live in comparative luxury. Buckley provides these insights with a wit and writing style that makes it easy to understand this subversion and frustration that all in the East must have felt during this period. Documenting the many attrocities enacted by the East Germans as the Wall is erected and further enhanced throughout the 60's, Buckley takes the reader along for the many inside dealings that the East tried to legitimize and enhance it's regime on the International stage.

Major Cold War events such as the Hungarian uprising in 1956, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the "Prague Spring" in 1968 are connected with Buckley's wry commentary that also ties in the human component to these major events. We see American General Lucious Clay stare down the Soviets at Checkpoint Charlie and see how this strength of character was unfortunately a rareity in American policy towards the Soviet Union...rare until that confleunce of major Cold War revisionists Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev enacted several initiatives that ultimately lead not only to the destruction of the Wall, but the end of Communism and, more specifically, the Soviet Union itself. Buckley covers all this in an amazingly comprehensive manner and closes out the book with the enacting of the Democratic government that exists in a unified Germany today.

If a short, to-the-point comprehensive history of the Cold War and the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall is what you're looking for, than this is the book for you. Beautifully written and covering all the major seminal periods of the Cold War, Buckley enhances his reputation as a political writer and serves the public well with "The Fall of the Berling Wall". This is a work that I'd recommend highly.


The Fall of the Berlin Wall   March 17, 2004
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

This book is really fascinating. William F. Buckley Jr. writes with amazing detail about the symbolism of the Berlin Wall, both its rise and ultimately, the meaning of its fall. I really found the personal stories included, of people trying to escape to West Germany, to be so powerful. Anybody who is interested in the Cold War history should read this book.


The Cold War's Story, Concisely Told   September 25, 2005
Gary C. Marfin (Sugar Land, Texas USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

We are extremely fortunate to have the story of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall rendered in the precise narrative of Mr. Buckley's book. Sceptics who might have expected Mr. Buckley exclusively to lavish praise on President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher will be sorely disappointed. What emerges in this concise history is far more complex. Three factors combined over time "to tear down this wall." First, Reagan and Thatcher were remarkably adept at pressuring the Soviet Union. On the U.S. side, National Security Directive - 75 sanctioned efforts to stimulate internal pressures on the USSR. The Star Wars program became a threat that Gorbachev could neither ignore nor afford to confront. Second, Gorbachev himself made the right moral choice in choosing to recognize rather than repress the growing aspirations for democracy in the Soviet bloc. [There was nothing inevitable in that, as made clear in the Gorbachev chapter in Ferguson's Virtual History.] Finally, within the Soviet Union, perhaps most especially in Gdansk, the desire for autonomy was courageously made actionable by ordinary citizens who at that perfect moment in time decided to become some of the century's greatest heroes. All these factors combined to replace the cold, unwavering Brezhnev Doctrine -- once a Soviet state always a Soviet state -- with what Primakov later implied was the new, Sinatra doctrine -- they can do it their way. Inevitably, the problem with well-written short books is that one wishes they were longer. So, I would like to have seen Mr. Buckley delve more into the Soviet struggle in Afghanistan with the ensuing alleged consequences for Al Queada, and I think the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict deserved a more in-depth narrative, one placing it in its larger historical context. All that is little more than saying I wish Buckely had continued to write this book, and that, I think, is often the way good short books books become really long insipid books. Thankfully, Buckley opted to give us a superbly readable and precisely rendered account of a significant part of what was both, as historian John Gaddis called it, the "long peace," and at the same time the long war of the 20th Century.


An excellent book, the handiwork of a genius   December 11, 2008
Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

William F. Buckley, Jr., is remembered as a serious and influential Conservative thinker, and also as an author who wrote in a concise yet highly-informative way. This book definitely shows that that reputation was well deserved. In a mere 212 pages (192, if you don't count the endnotes and index!), Mr. Buckley tells the story of the Berlin Wall, from its conception in the mind of de facto East German leader Walter Ulbricht, through its building, its long and terror-filled life, and on to its final destruction in a carnival-like atmosphere. But, this book is even more than that, in a remarkably short space, the book tells the story of the Cold War in Europe, from the end of World War 2 to the final fall of Communism.

Yeah, this is an excellent book, the handiwork of a genius. I found the book to be very informative, and very interesting. Indeed, it is surprisingly gripping, keeping me from even looking at another book before this one was finished. I highly enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Cold War.


The Germans should have better manners!!!   April 3, 2004
R. Anderson (Marquette, MI USA)
23 out of 34 found this review helpful

I imagine the person from Berlin who wrote the negative review of this book, is either not truly a Berliner, or is to young to have any sense at all.
Mr Buckley tells a lot of truths in this book. And as usual it's tough for any one whose not a citizen of the most powerful (and benevolent) countries in history.
This Berliner needs to look a little farther back in history then his hero Gorbachev.
Maybe back to his relatives who started the worst war in history. That led to half his father land being enslaved. And cost the allies and the US hundreds of billions to salvage as much of the father land from the political system that managed East Germany so well.
You've read his reveiw and now you've read mine. Read this book and judge for yourself. And I'm sure Mr Buckley would tell you, to believe 105 of what you hear, 20% of what you read, and only 50% of what you see. Never stop asking questions, and use common sence
A stong democracy will never enslave a country like Germany, Japan, Russia, China and others have.
Mr Buckley's take on these events seems much closed to the truth then the bilge spouted by the America hating, socialist from Berlin.