On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and Central and Eastern Europeans were freed from the constraints of communism. Twenty years later, the world that President Obama inherited from Ronald Reagan’s legacy is profoundly changed. Those suffering under planned economies and the denial civil rights are now living in free market economies and democracies. On the twentieth anniversary of this historic day Obama was absent. Instead, he sent his Secretary of State to Berlin in his place. Dr. Nile Gardiner points out that the administration added further insult to injury when Secretary Clinton ended her speech with a tribute to President Obama’s commitment to diversity and breaking down barriers to discrimination. Displaying an air of indifference and narcissism in no way endears Central and Eastern Europe to the United States.
Perhaps Obama should pay more attention to America’s greatest European allies in their unfinished quest for equality and prosperity. In the wake of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Pew Global Attitudes Project released their report, “Two Decades after the Wall’s Fall: End of Communism Cheered but Now with More Reservations.” The report reveals that those people of “former Iron Curtain countries generally look back approvingly at the collapse of communism” and the majorities of people in most former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries endorse the emergence of multiparty systems and a free market economy.” However, since 1991 when the original survey was conducted, “the initial widespread enthusiasm about these changes has dimmed in most of the countries surveyed.”
Sally McNamara of The Heritage Foundation analyzed the report saying that, on the whole, public opinion in Eastern and Central Europe reflects a “good news story” but “it is clear that satisfaction is not evenly spread.” Democratic aspirations are most prevalent among the younger generation and future leaders. This is why democracy promotion cannot be ignored. In order for younger generations and future leaders to lead their countries to prosperity, it is necessary for the United States to foster their democratic beliefs. According to McNamara, as Obama’s “approval ratings have taken a bit of a beating in central and Eastern Europe” now is not the time to take the region for granted nor should he assume that the victory achieved twenty years ago is a done deal.
As Vice President Joe Biden completes his arm-twisting tour of Central and Eastern Europe, the Czechs have announced that they are ready to participate in America’s new missile defense plan, but only in the context of NATO. In the clearest sign yet of dissatisfaction with their second-class treatment by the new Administration, the caretaker Czech Government announced that Czech participation in the new missile defense architecture will no longer be on a bilateral basis.
It is clear that President Obama sent Biden to Central and Eastern Europe to paper over the most immediate cracks between the two. Warsaw and Prague’s most pressing concern is America’s apparent willingness to pay any price to ‘reset’ U.S.-Russian relations. The lack of prior consultation by the Obama Administration with Poland and the Czech Republic before abandoning the Third Site gave Warsaw and Prague every indication that their interests are merely moot in a great Washington-Moscow poker game.
As former Czech President Vaclav Havel said, Vice President Biden needed to demonstrate to Prague that the decision to abandon the Third Site was not a Russian-dictated one; that Biden needed to “make it clear that America is interested in us, that someone else has not pushed us out of America’s field of vision.” Russia’s annexation of a third of Georgia’s territory last year inevitably provoked fear among other former Soviet satellites about Russia’s expansionist tendencies and America’s willingness to come to their defense in a worst case scenario. And despite Joe Biden’s flying visit, Obama’s disastrous handling of the Third Site decision will continue to shape Central and Eastern European insecurity for some time to come.