[News] Another Cold War Myth - The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Fri Oct 2 11:56:09 EDT 2009

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum10022009.html
October 2-4, 2009

Another Cold War Myth

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

By WILLIAM BLUM

Within a few weeks many of the Western media can 
be expected to turn on their propaganda machines 
to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 
tearing down of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 
1989. All the Cold War clichés about The Free 
World vs. Communist Tyranny will be trotted out 
and the simple tale of how the wall came to be 
will be repeated: In 1961, the East Berlin 
communists built a wall to keep their oppressed 
citizens from escaping to West Berlin and 
freedom. Why? Because commies don't like people 
to be free, to learn the "truth". What other reason could there have been?

First of all, before the wall went up thousands 
of East Germans had been commuting to the West 
for jobs each day and then returned to the East 
in the evening. So they were clearly not being 
held in the East against their will. The wall was 
built primarily for two reasons:

The West was bedeviling the East with a vigorous 
campaign of recruiting East German professionals 
and skilled workers, who had been educated at the 
expense of the Communist government. This 
eventually led to a serious labor and production 
crisis in the East. As one indication of this, 
the New York Times reported in 1963: "West Berlin 
suffered economically from the wall by the loss 
of about 60,000 skilled workmen who had commuted 
daily from their homes in East Berlin to their 
places of work in West Berlin." (New York Times, June 27, 1963, p.12)

During the 1950s, American coldwarriors in West 
Germany instituted a crude campaign of sabotage 
and subversion against East Germany designed to 
throw that country's economic and administrative 
machinery out of gear. The CIA and other US 
intelligence and military services recruited, 
equipped, trained and financed German activist 
groups and individuals, of West and East, to 
carry out actions which ran the spectrum from 
terrorism to juvenile delinquency; anything to 
make life difficult for the East German people 
and weaken their support of the government; 
anything to make the commies look bad.

It was a remarkable undertaking. The United 
States and its agents used explosives, arson, 
short circuiting, and other methods to damage 
power stations, shipyards, canals, docks, public 
buildings, gas stations, public transportation, 
bridges, etc; they derailed freight trains, 
seriously injuring workers; burned 12 cars of a 
freight train and destroyed air pressure hoses of 
others; used acids to damage vital factory 
machinery; put sand in the turbine of a factory, 
bringing it to a standstill; set fire to a 
tile-producing factory; promoted work slow-downs 
in factories; killed 7,000 cows of a co-operative 
dairy through poisoning; added soap to powdered 
milk destined for East German schools; were in 
possession, when arrested, of a large quantity of 
the poison cantharidin with which it was planned 
to produce poisoned cigarettes to kill leading 
East Germans; set off stink bombs to disrupt 
political meetings; attempted to disrupt the 
World Youth Festival in East Berlin by sending 
out forged invitations, false promises of free 
bed and board, false notices of cancellations, 
etc.; carried out attacks on participants with 
explosives, firebombs, and tire-puncturing 
equipment; forged and distributed large 
quantities of food ration cards to cause 
confusion, shortages and resentment; sent out 
forged tax notices and other government 
directives and documents to foster 
disorganization and inefficiency within industry 
and unions ... all this and much more. (See 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512526/counterpunchmaga>Killing 
Hope, p.400, note 8, for a list of sources for 
the details of the sabotage and subversion.)

Throughout the 1950s, the East Germans and the 
Soviet Union repeatedly lodged complaints with 
the Soviets' erstwhile allies in the West and 
with the United Nations about specific sabotage 
and espionage activities and called for the 
closure of the offices in West Germany they 
claimed were responsible, and for which they 
provided names and addresses. Their complaints 
fell on deaf ears. Inevitably, the East Germans 
began to tighten up entry into the country from the West.

Let's not forget that Eastern Europe became 
communist because Hitler, with the approval of 
the West, used it as a highway to reach the 
Soviet Union and wipe out Bolshevism forever. 
After the war, the Soviets were determined to close down the highway.

In 1999, USA Today reported: "When the Berlin 
Wall crumbled, East Germans imagined a life of 
freedom where consumer goods were abundant and 
hardships would fade. Ten years later, a 
remarkable 51% say they were happier with 
communism." (USA Today, October 11, 1999, p.1.)

About the same time a new Russian proverb was 
born: "Everything the Communists said about 
Communism was a lie, but everything they said 
about capitalism turned out to be the truth."

William Blum is the author of 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512526/counterpunchmaga>Killing 
Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since 
World War II, 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567511945/counterpunchmaga>Rogue 
State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. 
and 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887128727/counterpunchmaga>West-Bloc 
Dissident: a Cold War Political 
Memoir<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567511945/counterpunchmaga>.

He can be reached at: <mailto:BBlum6 at aol.com>BBlum6 at aol.com

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