Bringing Down the Wall
The victory twenty years ago – on June 4, 1989 – of the famed opposition trade-union movement, Solidarity, in Eastern Europe’s first free election since 1946 was eclipsed by the violent crackdown in Beijing and Ayatollah Khomeini’s death. Yet no single event did more to bring down communism in Europe – and thus to re-shape the post-war international order.
A quiz for history buffs. Twenty years ago – on June 4, 1989 – three events shaped a fateful year. Which do you remember most vividly, and which most changed the world?
a) The bloody denouement of the protests on Tiananmen Square.
b) The death of Iran’s revolutionary cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.