In the fall of the berlin wall im joined by my guest John Laughlin in paris he is a political scientist and historian in washington we have harold james hes a professor of history and International Affairs at Princeton University as well as author and editor of a number of books including when the wall came down reactions to german unification and in cork we cross to Geoffrey Roberts he is emeritus professor of history at University College cork and a member of the Royal Irish Academy all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciated let me go to john and paris 1st i mean 30 its been 30 years now believe it or not because i remember it so vividly when it happened a few months before i had been living in poland for a number of years and an avid student of Eastern European communist affairs at the time john 30 years on what is its meaning because i look at cursory reviews of you know that in commenting on it it is the peopl
Nations in Eastern Europe but thats a kind of a narrative that is very western i suppose but i lived there it was i dont have that same kind of feel for it ok though having said that im very glad those communist regimes are gone and the wall go ahead john. You know well like you peter i lived through those events very directly like you i was studying Eastern European studies at oxford at that point i spent that summer in 1909 in romania and in hungary and indeed in september 89 i was in west berlin and was there when the 1st east berlin as arrived in west berlin having driven through czechoslovakia hungry austria and and the whole of germany so i have a very strong memory of it as well i would make 2 points the 1st is that none of it would have happened without gorbachev decision to pull the rug on the Eastern European communist regimes that was decision he took in june and which he announced to the german chancellor helmut kohl at the time and all the events that we remember now the j
Communist regimes are gone and the wall go ahead john. You know well like you peter i lived through those events very directly like you i was studying Eastern European studies at oxford at that point i spent that summer in 1909 in romania and hungry and indeed in september 89 i was in west berlin and was there when the 1st east berlin is arrived in west berlin having driven through czechoslovakia hungry austria and the whole of germany so i have a very strong memory of it as well i would make 2 points the 1st is that none of it would have happened without gorbachev decision to pull the rug on the Eastern European communist regimes that was decision he took in june and which he announced to the german chancellor helmut kohl at the time and all the events that we remember now the jangling of keys in Wenceslas Square in prague the torch is the candlelight the songs and so on all that was nothing but operetta it was political operetta it was froth. On the on the on the tidal wave of histor
Andrew follow will be here with you next hour to take you through all the latest news from around the world and stay with us for crosstalk next here on our international. Hello and welcome to cross talk were all things are considered im Peter Lavelle 30 years ago the berlin wall fell the cold war had essentially come to an end the fall of the cold war symbol was heralded as a new spring of nations and the end of communism decades on what is the legacy of this historic event the promises of 1989 been fulfilled. Crosstalk in the fall of the berlin wall im joined by my guest John Laughlin in paris he is a political scientist and historian in washington we have harold james hes a professor of history and International Affairs at Princeton University as well as author and editor of a number of books including when the wall came down reactions to german unification and in cork we cross to Geoffrey Roberts he is emeritus professor of history at University College cork and a member of the Roya
Stands alone is in relation to the fa ct stands alone is in relation to the fact that he has had several meetings over the last few days with his parliament. What happened was that he did not mention it, he did not mention that he was giving support to the catalonian separatists, succession lists, so eve ryo ne separatists, succession lists, so everyone is surprised. I think this isa everyone is surprised. I think this is a really interesting story because it is speaking to how movements and protest are growing the similarities between barcelona and hong kong or even what we are experiencing here in london is actually uncanny. It is interesting, you reference hong kong there, because what we saw there was a targeting of the airport and there are now talks that the protesters wanting Catalan Independence may ta ke wanting Catalan Independence may take on some of those techniques and apply them there. Definitely, there are fundamentally different differences between the Hong Kong Movemen