99 Red Balloons

Just recently on March 26, 2006, VH1 aired the music video for Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” continuously from 2pm EST to 3pm EST. The song, originally recorded in 1983 as a Cold War protest by German pop singer Nena, tells the story of 99 red balloons floating in the air on a summer’s day which are mistaken for a Soviet first strike.

Coincidentally, on March 23rd, we as in in the American people, just celebrated the anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s famed 1983 “Star Wars” speech in which he called for “the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”

It makes you wonder if the Great Communicator preferred the English or the German version.

After all red balloons are just red balloons.