The Free Market Did Not Bring Down the Berlin Wall
The United States has misinterpreted the end of Communism for a quarter of a century. It's time to set the record straight. BY Melvyn P. Leffler Melvyn P. Leffler is Edward Stettinius Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and author of For the Soul Mankind: the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. NOVEMBER 7, 2014 On Nov. 9, 1989, Gunter Schabowski, an East German regime spokesperson, fumbled through a press conference and changed history. Although Schabowski was a member of the Politburo, he had not attended its meeting earlier in the day when the committee decided on the Communist Party's new travel regulations. He hadn't even read them over when he stood before the room full of reporters. For months, East Germans had been fleeing to West Germany, either through Hungary or Czechoslovakia. The regime was deeply embarrassed, and i...