S8 Ep1146: Matthew Longo, The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain. This segment focuses on the high-level politi

The John Batchelor Show · Jul 20, 2026 · 10m

Matthew Longo, The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain. This segment focuses on the high-level political maneuvers that set the stage for the collapse of the Iron Curtain, beginning with a Warsaw Pactmeeting on July 6, 1989. The primary figures are Miklos Nemeth, the young, Harvard-educated Prime Minister of Hungary and a reformer, and Nicolae Ceausescu, the "old guard" dictator of Romania. During the meeting, a furious Ceausescu berates Nemeth for betraying socialism and undermining the Warsaw Pact, even refusing to address him as "comrade." Nemeth, however, finds…