"I found out the East German Communists were just plain folks"
My experience exactly, having spent some time hitching over Central and Eastern Europe in the sixties, including half a dozen Communist countries - a friendly, welcoming people, happy to talk of their lives and interested in ours.
One of the most moving experiences was when two of is hitched into Czechoslovakia in 1968 on the morning the Russians re-opened the border and spent two weeks in Prague with a bunch of students, mainly arguing with Russian soldiers as to why their government had invaded - very few "enemies" in those discussions.
People are people and politicians are..... well.... what they are!!
Jim Carroll