Bush: Fall of Berlin Wall Set in Motion by People

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Former President George H. W. Bush expressed delight and satisfaction this morning at the commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the signature events of his administration.

"I'd like to have been over there, but we were there two weeks ago," said the 85-year-old former president, who now walks in shuffling steps with a cane and seems more frail than ever before.

Bush relived a few historic moments from 1989 and wondered out loud if the ailing former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 79, a close friend, had attended yesterday's celebrations in Berlin. Those in Bush's entourage were not sure, but they doubted that Kohl was there.

With typical modesty, Bush said the fall of the wall was "set in motion" not by leaders in Washington, Moscow, or Bonn but by "the people themselves." He told 500 well-wishers at his library in College Station that his role was to manage the unification of Germany and the end of the Soviet empire as smoothly and as harmoniously as he could.

In addition to Bush, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on hand at the George Bush Library and Museum on the campus of Texas A&M University to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Rice said last night that a big problem for America's leaders today is that the public demands "instant answers and instant results." She said the great diplomats and leaders of recent decades—including Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and former Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and George Marshall—succeeded because of their persistence and patience, virtues that are not prized as much today as in the past.

Rice also praised Bush, for whom she worked as chief adviser on the Soviet Union. She said Bush accomplished the "extraordinary feat" of winning the trust of both then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and this helped facilitate the unification of Germany and the end of the U.S.S.R.

Rice said that when she and other White House advisers saw that East Germany had opened its borders to West Germany on Nov. 9, 1989, they realized that the Berlin Wall was no longer a barrier to free movement—a huge victory for the United States and its allies. The advisers urged Bush to immediately visit Berlin to celebrate the historic moment. But Bush refused. "What would I do," he said, "dance on the wall?" The key, he explained, was to take a measured approach, avoid gloating, and prove to Gorbachev and Kohl that he would help them manage a very complicated and fragile situation. Bush was right, Rice said.

A new survey by BBC World News America-Harris Poll finds that 53 percent of Americans believe the destruction of the wall made the world safer, while 30 percent disagree. Forty-three percent of Americans believe Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and pressure from Western countries were most responsible for the fall of the wall; 30 percent say it was the German people; and 27 percent say it was Gorbachev and leaders of Eastern Europe.

Rice also served as national security adviser and secretary of state for President George W. Bush. She is now a political science professor at Stanford.