Latest / The John Batchelor Show
S8 Ep1146: Matthew Longo, The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain. As the picnic date of August 19, 1989, approa
Matthew Longo, The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain. As the picnic date of August 19, 1989, approaches, the atmosphere is "fraught" with tension. Thousands of East Germans (GDR) have flooded into Hungary, pretending to be on summer vacation but actually acting as refugees hoping for a chance to cross into the West. They camp at places like Ferto Rakos, where they are stalked by Stasi informers who take down names and instill terror. Meanwhile, in Budapest, Miklos Nemeth and other reformers view the picnic as "Operation Human Shield"—a test to see if the nearby…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.