18 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

On this date in 1989, Soviet communism died. It took a few years for the rest of the body to follow but when the Berlin Wall crumbled, so did the age of tyranny in Eastern Europe. In rapid succession, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the Baltics, Romania and the others declared their independence and became free nations once again.

Here's a retrospective from the end of WWII--including Reagan's momentous speech-- to the fall of the monstrosity set to Dylan's Masters of War:

Communism is not dead and lives in a bastardized form in China, Vietnam and Venezuela. Cuba has adhered to strict communism to their continuing detriment. Yet the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized a break from oppression and the victory that leaders like Reagan, Thatcher and Helmut Kohl had fought for was finally realized.