The end of the cold war, 20 years ago today

[Denur]

For me it is half a life time ago, but I can remember it vividly. Now, while watching the images from 1989, I still get tears in my eyes.

Do you remember the fall of the Berlin wall? Or being too young to have lived through the cold war, have you learned about what it was all about?

 

[blkvzgo]

All I know is that the world was in some kind of balance back then. It's debatable whether the world has become a safer place after the end of the cold war.

 

[Denur]

Well, one could call it a balance. We were holding mighty big guns to each others heads, with the knowledge that if one side pulled the trigger, that the other would have just enough time to do the same. And these guns were atomic bombs, and we had enough to destroy our Earth multiple times. Billions (not mere millions) would have died if it had come to war, and not just a war of words (the Cold War).

Believe me, it is much safer place now. Islamic terrorists may be able to kill a few thousand innocent people. But that is child's play compared to what the world could have had to go through if the bombs had fallen.

Also, millions of people now live in freedom, while before they had to live enslaved by the communists. Yes, it is a much better world now! 👍

 

[blkvzgo]

Well yes but those guns are still active and if anyone decides to pull the trigger now there won't be much to stop him. Also, I live in a former soviet country and believe me, the "enslavement" of the soviet period was nothing compared to the total chaos after the union collapsed.

 

[Denur]

Well yes but those guns are still active and if anyone decides to pull the trigger now there won't be much to stop him. Also, I live in a former soviet country and believe me, the "enslavement" of the soviet period was nothing compared to the total chaos after the union collapsed.

I understand and appreciate what you are saying. True, the fall of the wall has not been well for all nations. Not everyone is better off. Some of the former Soviet states have fallen into the hands of dictators and/or religieus fanaticts and life has taken a turn for the worse in those parts of the world. I do believe though, that the world as a whole has become a safer and better place.

 

[blkvzgo]

Hope it stays that way then.

 

[Danoff]

Well yes but those guns are still active and if anyone decides to pull the trigger now there won't be much to stop him. Also, I live in a former soviet country and believe me, the "enslavement" of the soviet period was nothing compared to the total chaos after the union collapsed.

How old are you? Are you old enough to have actually been "enslaved"?

 

[Exorcet]

Well, MAD essentially made WWIII impossible. Each side knew that firing would mean everyone loses. Nukes had a return address then.

The collapse of the USSR led to lesser security of its facilities, so it might be easier for a terrorist to get his hands on nukes, etc. If this does happen, the weapon will have no return address, MAD doesn't apply, and nuclear attacks are feasible again.

The US and USSR were building relationships toward the end. Maybe it would have better if the USSR kept up and the Cold War just thawed. I'm not really sure, just putting it out there.

On the wall, I was too young. But it seems like something everyone on both sides was happy about. I personally haven't heard about it from anyone on the Eastern side though.

 

[Joel]

I was too young to experience the Cold War. I have a general idea about what it was about, but i'm not anywhere near an expert.

 

[blkvzgo]

@Danoff: I'm twenty, so no I didn't experience the "enslavement" personally, I wasn't the one who used that word in the first place. But I did experience the post-soviet chaos personally, and I heard more than enough stories from my parents, relatives, teachers to get a clear picture about life in the Soviet Union. If you think that its collapse had only positive effects, then you are wrong.

 

[YSSMAN]

The Cold War didn't end of November 9th, 1989. Even when the Soviet Union officially "canceled itself" on December 25th, 1991... The Cold War still lingered for a bit. There were a lot of reasons for the end, and The Wall was just one of them. Nixon's recognition of the People's Republic of China, Afghanistan and Gorbachev's reforms all played a role as well.