WASHINGTON   –  “November 9th marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent liberation of 400 million people from the bondage of communism.  The Berlin Wall was the physical embodiment of division between democracy and communism, freedom and oppression, open and closed societies.  And the struggle over these ideals, which began during World War II, did not end until nearly 50 years later.

I first visited the Berlin Wall as a high school student.  I was 17 years old, in Berlin on a school trip, confronted by the concrete barricade I had only read about and seen in pictures.  It was far more terrible in person.  “This is where freedom ends,” I thought. 

And the Berlin Wall was nothing if not imposing.  Its dull, gray color was punctuated by bright graffiti, but you looked at it knowing that the other side was untouchably stark, decorated by razor wire, and faced by a wide strip of ground which, if you stepped on it, you would be shot dead.

In the next week of my trip, I was able to peek behind the Iron Curtain, into countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Soviet Union.  I would meet young men and women my own age who yearned for liberty and thirsted for freedom.  They envied me and the Americans I was traveling with.  It wasn’t our clothes or our cameras or the few small trinkets we brought from home they wanted – it was the voice we had in our own government, our ability to read an unbiased newspaper, and our free expression of political beliefs.  Secretly, they envied us because we knew our families would be waiting for us when we returned home.  They walked home every day in those gray dictatorships with no such guarantee.

So when I saw East Germans scaling the Berlin Wall in 1989, my heart swelled.  When I heard them shouting “freedom” and saw them dance atop it, my head spun.  When I saw the pickaxes chipping away at the wall’s facade, my fists clenched in encouragement.  I wished I could have been there to help.

Every one of those 400 million freed paid a price for their freedom we will never know.  They lived in fear of their government.  They lost family and friends who disappeared or died.  They suffered state-enforced poverty and state-imposed martial law.

When the Iron Curtain fell, everything changed for them.  Why?  Because generations of Americans dedicated themselves to the idea of peace through strength.  The Cold War wasn’t really a war, some will say, but try telling that to the families whose loved ones served in Europe during “peacetime,” who went to Vietnam and Korea in the uniform of our country, and who stood strong against threats of devastation and annihilation.  The freedom which is our birthright in America was an elusive dream behind the Iron Curtain until, one day 20 years ago, they had their chance.

In every branch of our military, Americans made sacrifices for peace through strength.  Their service is our legacy and our responsibility to carry forward – to break down barriers to freedom wherever we find them.  Years of perseverance were required to topple the Berlin Wall; steady pressure from strong men and women.  To every man and woman who served in wars around the world and especially during the Cold War – and to every family that supported a servicemember or suffered the loss of one, November 9th is a day to say, thank you – and God bless.”