Speech #1050117170

While the United States and NATO staunchly defended freedom in the West. we could do little in the East other than offer our moral support. because the risk of nuclear war was too great. After decades of oppression. when the Soviet Union itself began to decline. the people of these three countries again showed tremendous courage and determination by seizing the opportunity to throw off the yoke of communism. Hungary cut through the barbed wire on the Austrian border and allowed East German refugees to escape to freedom. Vaclav Havels peaceful protests ushered out one of the most repressive Communist regimes in Central Europe through the "velvet revolution" of 1989. The Solidarity movement finally pushed the generals and commissars out of power.