Because of the Bay of Pigs disaster, Khrushchev pegged Kennedy as a pushover
Things didn’t go well when U.S. President John F. Kennedy met with Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev in June 1961. Or at least they didn’t from Kennedy’s perspective. Speaking to American journalist James Reston after the Vienna summit’s second and final day, Kennedy described it as the “roughest thing in my life.” Khrushchev, he said,…
We can never forget the love of freedom and the demand for the respect of the rights of each individual that brought about its fall
Nov. 9 marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was most significant global event of my lifetime (I was born in 1962) and it’s worth remembering for many reasons. First, it’s significant to note why the wall fell. It simply couldn’t withstand the human desire for freedom. Throughout the communist…
Many walls remain in the world, including physical ones and those of racism, sexism and economic injustice
The most significant global event of my lifetime has been the fall of the Berlin Wall. It not only changed the geopolitical climate we live in, it also demonstrated the power of the human spirit. As a teacher, I often bring up this event. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently spoke to the graduates of Harvard…
Christians, Muslims and Jews come together to celebrate our common spirituality
Religion, intended to guide humans on the road to spiritual enlightenment, has instead often been a source of division and even a justification for violence. In recent years, however, there has been a significant shift, with religious leaders and their followers coming together to celebrate commonalities. Nowhere is this more evident than in Berlin, once…