The democratic choice Russian people made in the early 90's is final.
The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.
North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989.
Nobody thought the Soviet Union would collapse; it was a shock for everyone.
The cold war was the longest war in United States history. Because of the nuclear capabilities of our enemy it was the most dangerous conflict our country ever faced. Those that won this war did so in obscurity. Those that gave their lives in the cold war have never been properly honored.
I see the collapse of the Soviet Union as a great tragedy of the XX century.
Twenty years ago, I said there was going to be something that would stop the Soviet Union from taking over the world. And now we see that the Soviet Union has been stopped, through its own disintegration.
The Berlin Wall is the defining achievement of socialism.
History must give the Poles the principal credit for bringing the Soviet bloc to its knees.
I didn't believe that the Soviet Union would ever break down.
When you think back today to a time more than 70 years ago when Germany was a terrible place, a place people were afraid of, it is a wonderful development that we have gone from being a terrible place to a place that people dream of.
Wojtyla was a warrior, who did more to end the Soviet Union than even America.
The United States was proud to stand with the people of Germany as this nation and this continent reunited and rebuilt and reached for a better future.
As I've watched the Berlin Wall come down, the cry for freedom in China, and the eastern bloc nations, I rejoice, because I see the bankruptcy of Marxist-Leninism, socialism in this world.
I was 14 when the wall came down, so I only ever knew about the GDR or experienced it as a kid. I lived very far away from it, and you only ever thought about the GDR when you saw the Olympics, because you were like, "How are they always winning?!"
Here in Europe, I think that there are a lot of young people who forget the issues that were at stake during the Cold War.
When the USSR collapsed, I was 11, and unlike many people, I don't miss it.
You have won the Cold War. ... [Your] underappreciated valor [helped] topple the Berlin Wall, and bring down dictators the world over. ... For the past four decades the world behind the Iron Curtain ... looked to Americans for hope, and America looked to you to get the job done. Today, the free world says thank you.
I distinctly remember the vivacious optimism that inundated the United States when the Soviet Union imploded in the early 1990s. This was not glee generated by the doom of an implacable enemy, but thrill germinated by the real possibilities that the future held for freedom.
Building up the arms did not cause the fall of Eastern Europe.
The most noticeable thing about the Soviet collapse was that it followed a natural course.
By the time I got to college, the Cold War was basically over.
