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在1961年六月，我和我父母，还有我妹妹，还有我瑞典堂兄一起离开了德国首都柏林，去往瑞典享受两星期的北欧斯堪愉快生活。俄罗斯士兵穿着短马裤加上我从没见过的铮亮的黑色马靴，在检查点搜查我们。显而易见，他们都是精心挑选出来干这个工作的，这项工作需要几号的公共关系能力；共产党员都会展示自己最好的一面。这些士兵不仅帅气也很高效，迅速的对我们的文件进行处理；那天，他们都不太拘束，脸上都洋溢着真诚的笑容。比计划要早一周，我们就回到了柏林，开车经过同样的检查点。这次的气氛就比较紧张了。他们都没有笑。护照以及其他文件都被仔细而缓慢的检查，耽误了我们很多时间，搞得我们很不愉快。

是什么导致这样的变化？在历史课堂上，有一件大事被讲解了几百年。或许从现在往后的1000年，这个大事件都会在历史书中留下注脚。东德竖起了一面高墙，将世界上最著名的城市一分为二。芭芭拉塔奇曼认为柏林危机持续时间太短了，以至于不能写进历史，我认为这种观点是正确的。

In June 1961, I left Berlin, Germany, with my parents, my sister, and my Swedish cousin enroute to Sweden for what was to be two weeks of Scandinavian fun. The Russian soldiers who processed us through the checkpoints were impeccably dressed in jodhpurs and the shiniest black riding boots I had ever seen. It was obvious they had been carefully selected for this job, which entailed a goodly measure of public relations; the Communists displayed only their best. The soldiers were not only good looking and efficient, processing our papers quickly; on that day they were noticeably relaxed, with genuine smiles on their faces. A week earlier than planned, my family returned to Berlin, driving through the same checkpoints. This time the atmosphere was tense. There were no smiles. Passports and other papers were scrutinized slowly, creating long delays, much to our discomfort. 

What had caused the change? An event that will be taught in history classes for hundreds of years. An event that even a thousand years from now will be at least a footnote in the history books. The East Germans had erected a wall, dividing one of the world’s most famous cities in two. Barbara Tuchman would argue—correctly, I think—that it is too soon to write the history of the Berlin Crisis. This contemporary generation, born and raised in the tensions of the Cold War, will record the facts and write the narrative, but we are too close to have a good perspective on it (Tuchman 27-28). For the interpretation of those facts, we will have to wait for the generation now being born, a generation which will have few, if any, emotional attachments to the event and therefore be better able to analyze it with some objectivity—or ignorance, as Edward H. Carr would call it (9). This is how history is written. It is a process—a recording of facts and later an interpreting of those facts to relate them to the future generations. 

The question, of course, is what history our descendants will write. Human beings are by nature egocentric. In the West we assume future historians will see the crisis as we do. The wall was not constructed for noble reasons; it was a manifestation of the evil empire, was it not? It is often said that history is written by the victors, and at the moment it appears the West won the Cold War. We, the victors, are now compiling the facts as we see them. The atrocities of the Communist regimes will be stressed, the tales of false imprisonment told, the stories of desperate people who died trying to escape recounted and weighed against the freedom democracy offers. All this will be carefully noted, referenced, given contemporary comment, and then passed on to future generations for interpretation (Tuchman 27-28). Given our technology and its ability to produce the written word, the historian in two hundred years, studying the Berlin Crisis of 1961, will be overwhelmed with evidence. 

But what if the predominant society in the world two hu本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。