5 september 1961, General de Gaulle reacts to the Berlin Wall construction and the mild reaction from the West

7 comments

1. He was right. Containment policy ultimately worked.

2. Back then the red army was like 1000km away from Paris, and just coming out of a war where that distance was closed in weeks, French leaders tend to be a bit more forceful than today.

3. Absolutely ringing true today. I want every leader giving speeches like this. We’re getting too much “we have to let Russia back in guys cmonnnn” and “no no no we can’t look to China as if the same thing will happen”

4. Still relevant today.

   But unfortunately we already did that first de Gaulle’s “stepback” by not reacting to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 with which we “overexcited the agressor” and “facilatated his aassault” in 2022.

5. In this larger perspective of history one can clearly see that even after the fall of the wall, the Russian danger still remains unchanged for those 60 years.

6. Should of settled this long ago. Maybe Russia would not be the country it us today. Annexation of countries it use to have.

7. A bit of topic: Why is the camera quality that bad? The Nazis (Riefenstahl) had already better quality.