Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Happy Downfall of Communism Day!

Yesterday was Dirty Commie Day, so it's quite apropos to celebrate the Downfall of Communism Day today:
On 2 May, Hungarian soldiers began to dismantle the barbed wire and electric fencing along Hungary's border with neighbouring Austria. 
The communist governments of East Germany, Romania, and Czechoslovakia were furious. They feared that their own citizens would use this gap in the Iron Curtain to flee to the West. But Moscow did nothing.
And the dam broke.  I remember being stunned in September of that year when the East German commie government decided not to machine gun all of its citizens who were trying to travel to Hungary, but instead let them leave.  It was the end of the Iron Curtain, but that end all began on this day in 1989.


3 comments:

Todd said...

I was on active duty at the time, stationed at Ft. Polk, LA. We watched the East Germans swarm the wall and then tear it down on CNN. "Pay attention, guys. This is history!" I told my squadmates. It really was fantastic.

skybill said...

Hi Patch,
Leave it to the "Hunkies" to get the most pissed off first!!!! Oh how well I know and watched as a little kid.... 1956 (I was 11 years old!!) 'just got home from school, my aunt next door came over and said,"turn on the news!!!!" One of our Hungarian friends in Albany called her and said,"They are fighting in the streets in Budapest!!!" We turned on the TV and watched as the newsreel unfolded and she pointed out the Parliament building and other spots... (she was from the "Old Country") Prime Minister Molotov got a very affectionate "cocktail" named after him!!!!.... leave it to the Hunkies!!!!!
Egan yol keaussenum!!!,
"Arpad" William Deli
aka...skybill

McChuck said...

Good memories. We won the war, and everybody was happy. Well, almost everybody, but hardcore communists aren't sufficiently human to count.