By DON BEAVERS

July 4, 1976, West Berlin, 110 miles behind the Iron Curtain. It is the 200th anniversary of the birth of our great country -- and we were more than 100 miles from the Free World. We were closer to Communist Poland than to free West Germany.

We lived on an island, a tense bastion of freedom, surrounded by a wall that defined West Berlin, 10 feet by 12 miles. This small outpost of freedom was shared by France, Great Britain and the United States. The Soviets had the Eastern half.

Sometimes when out driving I accidentally "hit" the wall. In many areas the Berlin Wall consisted of bricked up facades of pre-World War II buildings. Literally, you could turn down a street while trying to find your way and suddenly before you was "The Wall."

The Wall, literally, was everywhere. It was a stark reminder of the difference between freedom and a dominating dictatorship.