Lawmakers continue to pay their respects to the late 41st president, George H.W. Bush. He died Friday at the age of 94.
U.S. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon tells KLCC that he always admired the late president’s “core decency and civility”. Wyden adds he appreciated how he handled the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
“President Bush was pushed very hard at the time to, in effect, get up and declare a huge victory in the Cold War as a result of the Wall coming down," says Wyden.
"And President Bush recognized that if he were to do that, what he would be doing would be empowering the hard liners, the KGB. And he restrained. It was something my dad really appreciated, and so do I.”
While President Reagan is famous for saying “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”, President Bush is credited for helping unify East and West Germany after its collapse.
Copyright 2018, KLCC.