To the Editor:
Has President Trump ever heard of the Berlin Wall? It is hard to think so from his explanation of his decision to stop the government shutdown to give congressional leaders a chance to provide funding for a wall between the United States and Mexico (“Shutdown Ends With No Funding for Wall,” front page, Jan. 26).
Part of his speech was a paean to walls:
“They do work. No matter where you go, they work. Israel built a wall, 99.9 percent successful. Won’t be any different for us. They keep criminals out. They save good people from attempting a very dangerous journey from other countries, thousands of miles, because they think they have a glimmer of hope of coming through. With a wall, they don’t have that hope.”
No, and people living in East Germany didn’t have that hope for almost three decades after the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. Every American president from John F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush denounced the cruelty of that wall. Its demise in 1989 led to the reunification of Germany, a great victory for democracy and a fatal defeat for the Communist dictatorships in East Berlin and Moscow that had erected it.
Now, Vladimir Putin has second thoughts about all that; has Donald Trump ever had a first thought about the Berlin Wall?
Craig R. Whitney
Brooklyn
The writer is a former editor and correspondent, including in Germany, for The New York Times.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Opinion | A Brief History of Walls (Including Berlin’s)
Opinion | A Brief History of Walls (Including Berlin’s)
To the Editor:
Has President Trump ever heard of the Berlin Wall? It is hard to think so from his explanation of his decision to stop the government shutdown to give congressional leaders a chance to provide funding for a wall between the United States and Mexico (“Shutdown Ends With No Funding for Wall,” front page, Jan. 26).
Part of his speech was a paean to walls:
“They do work. No matter where you go, they work. Israel built a wall, 99.9 percent successful. Won’t be any different for us. They keep criminals out. They save good people from attempting a very dangerous journey from other countries, thousands of miles, because they think they have a glimmer of hope of coming through. With a wall, they don’t have that hope.”
No, and people living in East Germany didn’t have that hope for almost three decades after the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. Every American president from John F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush denounced the cruelty of that wall. Its demise in 1989 led to the reunification of Germany, a great victory for democracy and a fatal defeat for the Communist dictatorships in East Berlin and Moscow that had erected it.
Now, Vladimir Putin has second thoughts about all that; has Donald Trump ever had a first thought about the Berlin Wall?
Craig R. Whitney
Brooklyn
The writer is a former editor and correspondent, including in Germany, for The New York Times.
Source: Read Full Article