How the fall of the Wall freed Nelson Mandela - Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6916299.ece

November 14, 2009

How the fall of the Wall freed Nelson Mandela

Gorbachev and de Klerk were unexpected revolutionaries joined for ever by a brief moment in history 20 years ago

by Michael Binyon

“The ANC would come in on a platform of racial equality. We thought it would then be overtaken by a communist coup,”

***

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela are two of the most joyous and momentous events of the past half century. The collapse of communism changed Europe for ever. The dismantling of apartheid spared South Africa a bloodbath and set the world an extraordinary example of reconciliation and racial harmony. Who could have imagined the two events were so closely linked?

Twenty years after the Wall was breached and almost two decades since Mr Mandela was freed, the architects of these astonishing events met in Berlin this week to celebrate what they unleashed and their consequent Nobel Peace Prizes.

More at link