Decades later, the wall remains a symbol of the violence employed by socialist states, and a reminder that the egalitarian workers' paradise of East Germany was so hated by its residents that the state had to build a wall to keep residents in.

It is ironic, then, that only a generation later, Americans are becoming increasingly enamored with socialism. According to a recent Gallup poll, 43 percent of Americans say socialism is a "good thing." It's unclear how many of those respondents can actually define socialism. Some believe socialism to simply be policies that promote equality. Others define it using the more historically orthodox view: government ownership of the means of production.