Why a debate over German reunification matters now

A September 12, 1990 file photo shows former U.S. President Ronald Reagan holding a hammer and chisel next to the Berlin Wall on Poltsdammer Platz in East Berlin. In Berlin in 1987, Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," but later developed a warm relationship with the reformer. Even in his relations with the "evil empire" of the former Soviet Union, which earned him almost universal praise for helping end the Cold War, Reagan was pushing for nuclear arms reductions and a better relationship before the end of his first term, more than a year before Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. REUTERS/Michael Probst/Files JDP

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Germany’s reunification at the end of the Cold War. More than a generation later, the diplomacy that made it possible is still a fount of controversy. There is a raging debate — involving scholars, former policymakers and even a former secretary of state — over whether US and West German officials promised their Soviet counterparts that NATO would … Continue reading Why a debate over German reunification matters now