Back in the day, I was in Berlin bearing witness to Cold War optics and reality. I was literally followed in East Berlin, which was creepy. And, in the company of American GI’s at Checkpoint Charlie, I was handed binoculars to observe East German soldiers with binoculars staring back at me from their side of the Wall. Beyond weird.
But I also experienced something that was encouraging. The West Germans frequently referred to their chancellor, Willy Brandt, as “Schnapps Willy.” It wasn’t an insult. It was a reminder that the tippling leader of the democratic side of Germany was not on some authoritative pedestal. In short, he was no (former East German leader) Walter Ulbricht. West Germans could publicly criticize a leader and even poke fun at him (not unlike we do with ours, including at the aforementioned WH Correspondents Dinner.) Back then, it was a societal sign that a leader who has been elected by the people is still one of the people—not some Moscow-approving, Communist minion.