Mooney: Cold War memories
I remember transitioning from democratic West Berlin to the evil one-party communist East Berlin through the infamous Checkpoint Charlie border crossing. It was a Cold War; it still is.
Lots of big official signs warning that you will be entering into another land, so be careful because now you will be subject to their judicial system.
We — myself along with fellow American students studying in West Germany for the summer — wanted to go. Putin was stationed in a small East German city dreaming of becoming the next russian czar.
Then, our American president stands next to the Berlin Wall and says, “Tear down this wall,” and, when the wall fell in 1989, and Germany reunited, Putin had to move back to Moscow.
He lied to Mikhail Gorbachev (who was for democracy) just to rise up to fulfill his dreams of becoming dictator for life. I wasn’t James Bond; I just fantasized I was, and their street food sucked.
Tom Mooney
Aspen
