Do some research on the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and you’ll discover that their “Velvet Revolution” was named for the 1960’s band Velvet Underground, whose music was very influential there since the 1960’s. Whether you know or like their music is irrelevant — Václav Havel and the other leading Czech dissidents did, and they are the ones who were actually part of that history. Likewise, composer Giuseppi Verdi was very influential in 19th century Italian politics, as other musical artists have been in their own times.

As for the 1988 Springsteen concert in East Berlin: supposedly 160,000 people (1% of all East Germans) attended the show, with millions more listening to live radio and TV broadcasts. This was certainly a much larger audience than were able to see speeches by Reagan, Thatcher, or anyone else from the west, so the suggestion that the event was influential is not unreasonable. And if you think Reagan showed fortitude by standing in West Berlin and asking Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” then give Springsteen credit for saying — in German — that he was there “in the hope that one day all barriers will be torn down” while actually standing in *East* Berlin.

You don’t have to agree with the Reuters correspondent’s hypothesis, but your response simply shows an ignorance of history and an arrogant presumption about the inner thoughts of others.

The people who come to mind, who really brought down the Wall, are Reagan, Thatcher, and the Holy Father. I don’t know anyone else that you could say helped.