Vice President JD Vance spoke at the 61st Munich Germany Security Conference on Feb. 14. He criticized European leaders for a retreat from fundamental democratic values, particularly free speech.

Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, pushed back against Vance’s criticisms, defending European democracy and stating that it was “unacceptable” to compare conditions in Europe with those in authoritarian regimes. His words don’t reflect the reality that is Germany and Europe now.

I remember the 1960s, when the Berlin Wall separated East from West Germany. I had a friend who was on the U.S. military liaison at Check Point Charlie between the two. He was involved in smuggling East German escapees to West Germany.

As a U.S. officer he was not searched when crossing the border. Those people were desperate to escape from a totalitarian regime that was obsessed with any free speech that might endanger their privileged power. They shot people trying to do that.

Europe had for many years been moving toward brutal totalitarianism. It didn’t happen overnight. One of the first things to end was free speech.

Over the last few years, even here in the United States, free speech has been under siege. If it had continued we would have been on that road to totalitarian domination.

In John Koehler’s book, “Stasi: The Untold Story Of The East German Secret Police,” I see a correlation of what happened there and what was happening here in the U.S. and what’s now happening in Europe again.

JD Vance was right.

Lawrence Everett, South Paris