The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Eastern Europe

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, allowing citizens of both East and West Germany to travel freely between the two countries. This was a clear sign to the Soviet government of the rapid acceleration of change in Eastern Europe, as the Berlin Wall had been both the physical and symbolic divide of West and East Europe. In this frank assessment of Gorbachev's reaction to the rapid change in Eastern Europe, U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock lays out not only Gorbachev's fears but all of the signs of the end of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe. With the more violent upheavals to come in Romania by the end of December 1989, it is clear that even Matlock's pessimistic assessment of the precarious state of Soviet power was not entirely accurate, as Gorbachev's influence rapidly erode throughout all of Eastern Europe in just a few months.