I still remember the excitement when the wall came down which had a lot of implications beyond uniting Germany. It amazes me how far as a nation they've come since then. West Germany was already doing well but the communist side of the country (East Germany), was failing. Not enough jobs, food, or even fuel to keep warm.
You're probably aware of this but just in case, the gun towers protecting the wall on the East German side were pretty much there to keep people from escaping. Most countries would have their guns facing towards the enemy but the sad truth was that there was nothing of value to try to take from East Germany.
The wall wouldn't have come down without President Reagan. He didn't have to take other countries down through military might he did it through threat of our military might. Potential enemies did not see Reagan as a coward. Reagan's genius was taking down other countries through draining their economies. People forget how scared we were of Russia, but Reagan knew that the core communists’ countries were burying themselves in debt because of their spending on military and not focusing on the basic needs of their citizens.
Most of us didn't have a clue how bad of shape Russia was in and were pretty much in shock when we found out they were hanging by a thread economically. The Reagan Administration and CIA knew the truth about Russia and successfully brought them to their knees without a single bullet fired.
It’s amazing that they now have a President who was elected by the people. Both China and Russia are so much different (mostly in positive ways), than they were and we owe Reagan for Russia and President Nixon for his masterful work with China. Twenty years ago, Chinese children in grade school, had a class where they were taught to hate the U.S. There’s no way China would have those classes now because their economy is very impacted by trade relations with the U.S. At the end of the day it seems like it’s always about money.