The Fall of the Wall - the popular revolutions in Eastern Europe were completely unexpected

THE FALL OF THE WALL, 25 YEARS ON
Source: www.cps.org.uk

Two common themes emerge from a collection of exclusive articles and historic texts published today by the Centre for Policy Studies to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Sunday 9 November:

• that the popular revolutions in Eastern Europe were completely unexpected (apart from by Zbiginiew Brzezinski and Niall Ferguson);
• that the West failed to capitalise on its great victory.

Please click through to the following articles for the full text:

• the astonishing prescience of Zbiginiew Brzezinski in his 1988 Centre for Policy Studies lecture: Why the Wall will fall and why China will be the second largest economy by 2010.

• Lord Powell: Why the Soviet Ambassador knocked on the door of Number 10 at midnight.

• Lord Howell: “Looking back, it is strange how many of us thought it would not happen in our lifetime”.

• Margaret Thatcher’s speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet (13 November 1989): “The message is clear, when people are free to choose they choose freedom, they turn their backs on a system which has been discredited—not by Western propaganda but by first-hand experience.”

• Michael Clarke: “I was in good company in being wrong about the longevity of the Berlin Wall. Mrs Thatcher thought the same.”

• John O’Sullivan: "Gorbachev had several vigorous debates over economic liberty with Mrs. Thatcher before and after becoming leader"

• Professor Niall Ferguson: Why my article forecasting the fall of the Wall was spiked (“You’ve been listening to one too many Reagan speeches”). 

NOTES

1. Zbiginiew Brzezinski was United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and an advisor to Ronald Reagan.
2. In 1988, Lord Howell of Guildford was chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.
3. In 1988, Lord Powell of Bayswater was Private Secretary and adviser on foreign affairs and defence to Margaret Thatcher from 1983 to 1990.
4. Michael Clarke is Director General of RUSI.
5. John O’Sullivan is editor-at-large of National Review where he served as editor-in-chief for almost a decade.
6. Professor Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and a Board Member of the Centre for Policy Studies. His comments on the fall of the Wall were made at the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Liberty held on 18 June 2014.