Who Really Ended the Cold War? Reagan, Wałęsa, Havel & Kohl

Ronald Reagan famously told Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” But the end of the Cold War was much bigger than one speech or one president.

In this episode of Gadflies Through History, Billy O’Brien explores the stories of three men who helped transform Europe:

Lech Wałęsa, the Polish electrician who became the face of the Solidarity movement.

Václav Havel, the playwright and dissident who became one of the central figures of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution.

Helmut Kohl, the West German chancellor who helped navigate the diplomacy that led to German reunification.

We trace the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the collapse of communist rule across Eastern Europe, the Velvet Revolution, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the political negotiations that reshaped Europe.

We also go back to the beginning.

Why did the Cold War start?
Why was the Berlin Wall built?
How did nuclear weapons change the relationship between the United States and Soviet Union?
What role did proxy wars, economic pressure and popular resistance play?

The Cold War was fought in presidential offices and military command centers, but it was also fought in shipyards, streets, theaters, churches and public squares.

So who really ended it?

Powerful leaders at the top, or ordinary people who refused to accept the world they inherited?

Meet the rebels who challenged power and helped change history.

Follow us and fly away.

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/fall-of-communism

TIME
The History Behind the Velvet Revolution
https://time.com/5730106/velvet-revolution-history/

German Federal Government
The Chancellor Who Reunited Germany
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/service/archive/archive/the-chancellor-who-reunited-germany-413888

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Hosted by Billy O’Brien
Produced by Liman Hossain