End of an Era

Last night the news was announced of the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last of a generation of Cold War leaders, who along with the likes of Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher did more to protect world peace than anyone since 1945.

For those of us that grew up during the Cold War and the concept of MAD (which still exists today) it was very real, I was not born during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but absolutely remember the missiles at Greenham Common airbase in the UK and the regular stand offs that used to occur between East and West.

There is that famous speech from Regan saying "Mr Gorbachev tear down the wall" which is essentially what he did, when the collapse of Eastern Europe started there was no repeat of previous interventions such as Czechoslovakia or Hungary, the wall came down. He recognised change was needed.

As a child I remember going to East Berlin and standing on the viewing platform at Checkpoint Charlie, with Soviet tanks on one side and US ones on other, we were told not to take photos, we of course all did, one day I must find them. Then crossing into East Berlin where it was mandatory to hand over 40 Deutsche Marks to get 40 Ost Marks, you couldn't actually find anything to spend them on and whilst it was illegal we used to give them away in the square outside the East German parliament building or smuggle them back out to the west.

He will be one of my over riding memories of the Cold War along with TV series like "Threads", the animation "When the Wind Blows", the hilarious UK information campaign entitled "Protect and Survive", at the time we were living maybe 5 miles from a primary target. There was of course the iconic Vulcan Bomber, although by that point the UK's nuclear deterrent was the responsibility of the Royal Navy as it is today. Ironically this Cold War icon is probably most remembered for its role in Operation Black Buck from the Falklands War.

This era was such a big part of my life growing up and I've got so many memories of what went on and how the world changed over this period I could probably write for hours about it.

Say what you like about Thatcher and Regan between the three of them they started the journey on making the world a safer place. Yes I disagree with his politics, but he recognised change was needed and tried, Russian history will I'm sure be unkind to him. Sadly we are back in world of pre-1985 before him came to power at the moment. Steve Rosenberg's interview with him from a year or so ago where he ended up playing the piano and having a sing along with him says a lot about the man. RIP Mikail Gorbachev you changed the world. You don't have to agree with someone to respect him.