Europe and America Are Refighting the Cold War, and Both Can Win
An argument over credit for defeating the Soviet Union sheds light on the best approach to Russia and China today.
Mike Pompeo and great liberator or credit hog?
Photographer: Gregor Fischer/AFP/Getty Images
It’s a sign of the times that an anniversary that should have showcased U.S.-German unity has instead turned into a transatlantic spat. Nov. 9 marked the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, an event that symbolizes the triumph of the West in the Cold War. Yet the U.S. and Germany have been engaged since in a dust-up over an op-ed article written by Germany’s foreign minister, and by the placement in Berlin of a statue of Ronald Reagan. The dispute would be totally forgettable, except that it testifies to a transatlantic divide over what caused the end of the Cold War — and it has implications for how U.S. alliance management and geopolitical strategy today.
The hubbub started in early November when Heiko Maas published the article, which seemed to go out of its way to credit everyone except the U.S. for helping overcome the Cold War division of Europe. A few days later, the U.S. State Department unveiled a state of Reagan — who urged Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in 1987 — on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. The location was notable because Berliners and their city government have long resisted U.S. efforts to have the statue placed elsewhere, leaving no option but to erect it on American territory within the embassy compound.