"The greatest credit for liberation of Eastern Europe lies with common people whose thirst for freedom survived decades of repression under Soviet rule – ordinary warriors like Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose Nobel Prize-winning writings documented the horrors of Soviet labor camps.
"They are the ones who led the mass exodus from East Germany to West, who tuned in to the broadcasts of Radio Free Europe against the objections of their government, who shed the shackles of oppression in pursuit of the ideals of liberty and prosperity offered by a free society.
"The brave actions of these impatient patriots – matched by the bold transformative visions of Western policymakers – ensured that freedom would triumph over tyranny.
"Today, a new kind of ideological struggle emerges, one that finds freedom’s enemies in the form of dictators who persecute religious and ethnic minorities, in the form of tyrants who cling to artificial symbols of legitimacy, in the form of terrorists who seek to slaughter innocent civilians and seek to destroy civilized ways of life.
"We must marshal the institutions of the Cold War era, like the NATO alliance, to help meet these 21st-century threats.
"And, perhaps most importantly, we must never surrender the bold vision that advances the goals of freedom and democracy around the world.
Dr Condoleezza Rice
Pic "Holidays In The Sun"
There was a time prior to that period of a fear to allow Germany to re-unify. Obviously those fears are put to rest.
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