Worried about Soviets, US wouldn't 'gloat' as Wall fell - Feature
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Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:04:32 GMT |
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Washington - The United States went to great lengths to prevent a Soviet backlash as the Berlin Wall fell, playing down the joyous occasion as "just another step" toward the crumbling of communism in Eastern Europe, says retired general Brent Scowcroft, the top White House adviser at the time. While the world celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, the White House was concerned that the rapidly unfolding events could prompt Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev into a crackdown on the reformist movement in Eastern Europe, said Scowcroft, who was president George HW Bush's national security adviser. "What we were all worried about was that if we gloated over what was happening it could produce a reaction from the Soviet Union. So we wanted to downplay the whole issue as a step forward for everybody. But not gloat," Scowcroft said. In an exclusive interview with the German Press Agency
Copyright DPA
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