Final Word from Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Emmanuel Macron was among the world leaders who marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by praising the East Germans. He wrote in French and German that, "The Berlin Wall didn't fall 30 years ago. It was felled by the bravery of thousands of people yearning for freedom." What does this say about the Cubans? Thirty years later, they're still waiting. Do they not have the same courage that was so lauded by Macron and Mike Pompeo? When George H.W. Bush pushed Mikhail Gorbachev in Malta in Dec. 1989 to do something about Cuba, the Soviet leader replied, "No one can really give orders to Cuba, absolutely no one. Castro, for instance, has his own views of perestroika, saying what he thinks." He then told Bush that Castro was ready to normalize relations with the U.S. and that he (Gorbachev) would be glad to help in establishing a dialogue. "I must say," Gorbachev wrote later, "Mr. Bush reacted very coldly to my proposal." The USSR "had no intention of telling the Cubans what to do," Gorbachev added, and he apparently meant it. There was no Cuban Velvet Revolution. [ Czech Republic Cold War United States of America Czechoslovakia ]