PREVIEW: From conversation with Matthew Longo, author of the new non-fiction THE PICNIC: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain.. The author sets the scene for the moment the young and frightened can imagine the way to Austria and safety.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2023
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Picnic-Dream-Freedom-Collapse-Curtain/dp/0393540774/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
1956 BUDAPEST
Transcript
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| 0:30.2 | This is John Bachelor. |
| 0:31.4 | This from a much longer conversation with Matthew Longo, the author of a new book, The Picnic, |
| 0:37.0 | a dream of freedom and the collapse of the Iron Curtain. |
| 0:40.0 | This is the summer of 1989. |
| 0:43.7 | At that moment the Iron Curtain was in place as far as the people of Eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact, |
| 0:50.4 | were concerned. |
| 0:51.7 | They had lived their lives, |
| 0:53.0 | constrained, fearful, especially of Soviet intervention, |
| 0:57.8 | as it had several times in the 1950s and the 1960s. |
| 1:01.9 | But it is now 1989. The Soviet state is fragile, falling apart. |
| 1:07.8 | We know the Soviet Union will end at the end of 91. Still, the people in Hungary, the young people in Hungary who could see a better life for |
| 1:17.1 | them on the other side of the Iron Curtain were frightened that at the very last moment they'll be snatched back and thrown into prison |
| 1:25.8 | or have their passports taken or in some way their families will suffer right at the end |
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