Since 9/11 the US already states very explicitly that it doesn't want me as a visitor - I'm not going to go through the (visa) hoops they hold up to me.

It was actually administratively much easier to cross the iron curtain in the form of the berlin wall back then than it is now to get into the US (me being german).

(This is a bit unfair because there were special regulations for germans inside berlin, and US visas weren't that easy back then either.)