It took more than the deliverance of millions from the Berlin Wall to move George HW Bush. “I’m just not an emotional kind of guy,” said the 41st US president, as Germans made short work of local masonry 30 Novembers ago. Some of this was the reticence of a Wasp in his sixties. Some of it was tact in the face of a volatile Moscow.
Looking back, there was another reason for Americans to curb their euphoria. They had just been deprived of more than they had gained.
Enough is said about the perverse consequences of November 9 1989 for the world order. We know about the uncorking of national and religious atavisms. We know about the revanchism of an aggrieved Russia.