David Pryce-Jones remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago, with some behind-the-scenes reporting.

Meanwhile, “President Barack Obama has RSVPed “nein” to Chancellor Merkel’s invitation to Germany to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. National Review Online asked a few experts what this snub reveals about our current president.” Well, I certainly wish they’d led off with someone who wasn’t quite so openly… uhm… happy that Mr. Obama might have made a stupid move politically. But some of the commentators have more worthy things to say.

I wish I could remember which Charles Colson books have some good chapters on life behind the Iron Curtain, and the role of Christians in overcoming that particular cluster of tyrannies. I think the quiet, heroic perseverance of the faithful is not as much acknowledged as it should be, considering the impact they had. At any rate, most of Colson’s books that I’ve read feature a good look at history that, for the most part, didn’t get reported in the secular press at the time. I recommend reading his books to round out your understanding of world events.