But that too was unhelpful, Robinson said. President Ronald Reagans 1987 call to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall is considered a defining moment of his presidency. In 1952, the border between the two countries was closed and by the following year East Germans were prosecuted if they left their country without permission.
Despite getting little support for suggesting Reagan demand the wall's removal, Robinson kept the phrase in the speech text. [7] About those demonstrators, Reagan said at the end of his speech: "I wonder if they ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they are doing again". For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. They looked at each other and one man pointed and said, My sister lives just a few kilometers in that direction but I havent seen her in more than 20 years. Robinson wrote the observations into Reagans speech, knowing hed face resistance within the administration. To receive Stanford news daily, [15] John Kornblum, senior US diplomat in Berlin at the time of Reagan's speech, and US Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001, said "[The speech] wasn't really elevated to its current status until 1989, after the wall came down. Reagan, who served two terms as president, from 1981 to 1989, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93. "He was a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe. [4] In 1986, 25 years after the construction of the wall, in response to West German newspaper Bild-Zeitung asking when he thought the wall could be removed, Reagan said, "I call upon those responsible to dismantle it [today]". While Robinson acknowledges that he is credited with writing the speech, in fact, the speech is Reagans. For the rest of the evening, the guests shared their experiences. On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ronald Reagans former speechwriter and current Hoover Institution fellow Peter M. Robinson shares what inspired those now famous words Mr. But after the Berlin Wall toppled 30 years ago, on Nov. 9, 1989 Reagans words, delivered not two years earlier on June 12, 1987, came to define a turning point in U.S.-Soviet relations. All Reagan said was that it was a good draft, Robinson recalled. In an article published in The Wall Street Journal in November 2009, Dolan gives a detailed account of how in an Oval Office meeting that was prior to Robinson's draft Reagan came up with the line on his own. After World War II, thousands of East Germans fled their communist state to the West. His return marked a warming of relations between the U.S. and the pariah state known for its extensive read more, In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot to death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. The quickest way for them to leave was simply walking across the street in Berlin to the western section of the city.
In May 1949, the three western sections came together as the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) being established in October of that same year. And the president said, Well, theres that passage about tearing down the wall. He could imagine a post-Soviet world. Beliefs become reality.' [6] During the visit itself, wide swaths of Berlin were closed off to prevent further anti-Reagan protests. The wall was fortified with army guards, minefields, chain fences and other obstacles to prevent East Germans from fleeing. Stanford, California 94305. On June 12, 1920, Man O War wins the 52nd Belmont Stakes, and sets the record for the fastest mile ever run by a horse to that time. [3] It was written by Peter Robinson, then a speechwriter for the President, currently the host of the Uncommon Knowledge program of the Hoover Institution. In the end, 49 people were dead and dozens more injured, in what was, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting read more, On June 12, 2017 Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old student who was taken prisoner in North Korea 17 months earlier, returned home to the United States in a comatose state. "[8], Chief speechwriter Anthony Dolan gives another account of the line's origins, however, attributing it directly to Reagan. ! I was 30 years old, I had been to Berlin for a day and a half, and I was convinced that I knew better than all the foreign policy experts in the U.S. government about what the president should say. "[20], In November 2019, a bronze statue of Reagan was unveiled near the site of the speech. The city saw the largest police deployment in its history after World War II. [16] The Soviet press agency TASS accused Reagan of giving an "openly provocative, war-mongering speech. "[17], In an interview, Reagan claimed that the East German police did not allow people to come close to the wall, which prevented the citizens from experiencing the speech at all. A piece of the Berlin Wall located at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Reagan's cue card with the most famous part of the speech, 1987 speech by U.S. president Ronald Reagan in West Berlin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, "Ronald Reagan speech, Tear Down This Wall", "Reagan challenges Gorbachev to 'tear down' Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987", "Looking Again at Reagan and 'Tear Down This Wall', "Speechwriters' Shouts of Joy in Reagan's Oval Office", "Ronald Reagan's Famous "Tear Down This Wall" Speech Turns 20", "Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin", "Reagan's 'tear down this wall' speech turns 20", "Reagan remembered worldwide for his role in ending Cold War division", "Let's Please Stop Crediting Ronald Reagan for the Fall of the Berlin Wall", "President Reagan Returns to Berlin, this time in Bronze", Ronald Reagan Signed and Inscribed Photograph at the Berlin Wall, Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson reflecting on the speech, "Tear Down This Wall" How Top Advisers Opposed Reagan's Challenge to GorbachevBut Lost, of president Ronald Reagan's speech at the Berlin wall (June 12, 1987), Discussion of "Tear Down This Wall" speech featuring Peter Robinson, June 11, 2021, 19471948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972, Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States, American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine, Reagan's Neshoba County Fair "states' rights" speech, United States presidential election (1976, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tear_down_this_wall!&oldid=1093817231, History of the foreign relations of the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Ratnesar, Romesh. Arriving in Berlin on Friday, June 12, 1987, President and Mrs. Reagan were taken to the Reichstag, where they viewed the wall from a balcony. [12] The current title of the speech comes from Reagan's rhetorical demand of Gorbachev and the Soviet Union: We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. A stunningly large and diverse crowd descends upon New York Citys Central Park on June 12, 1982, demanding nuclear disarmament and an end to the Cold War arms race. The first thing Robinson and the team did when they arrived was visit the Brandenburg Gate. That wall has to come down.. Once the wall fell, the speech seemed to have summed up and even predicted the final phase of the Cold War.. By 1960, approximately one-fifth of the East German population had left, many of them educated and young. It was not until Robinson broke off from the advance team to join a group of Berliners for dinner that he finally found inspiration. The nearly 27-mile-long barricade stood until Nov. 9, 1989, when East Germany opened its borders. In the post-Cold War era, it was often seen as one of the most memorable performances of an American president in Berlin after John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech of 1963. But Robinson along with his bosses, chief speechwriter Anthony Dolan and Director of Communications Thomas Griscom wanted to get Reagans take on it first. [21], West Berlin mayor Eberhard Diepgen watching the speech. He told the president that people in East Berlin would be able to hear him speak. In a visit to West Berlin in June 1982, he stated, "I'd like to ask the Soviet leaders one question [] Why is the wall there?". Robinson said seven alternative drafts were submitted, each version missing the call to tear down the wall. By the end of the day, estimates place the number of attendees at over a million, making it the largest read more, As Latin music blared inside Pulse, one of Orlandos biggest nightclubs on June 12, 2016, a gunman forced his way inside and opened fire on the predominantly gay crowd. He was instead doing something else on that damp day in Berlin 20 years [before Mann's article] he was helping to set the terms for the end of the cold war. During the night of Aug. 13, 1961, the government encircled West Berlin with barbed wire that was later replaced with cinder blocks and, eventually, 13-foot-tall concrete slabs. Built in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany), the Berlin Wall cut off access from East Germany to the neighboring West German enclave deep in the communist state. I never actually expected the wall to come down that quickly.. Stanford News is a publication of Stanford University Communications. And then you looked back to East Berlin and you saw this kind of strange, colorless void. He recalled thinking, What can I possibly write that would give the president material equal to this place?. A section of the wall mentioned in the speech. On Monday, May 18, 1987, President Reagan met with his speechwriters and responded to the speech by saying, "I thought it was a good, solid draft." Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall.
subscribe to Stanford Report. People were well dressed, there was this sense of color and activity, recalled Robinson, who traveled to West Berlin in 1987 with the presidents team responsible for planning the impending trip. [5], On the day before Reagan's 1987 visit, 50,000 people had demonstrated against the presence of the American president in West Berlin. For two years, the Franks and four other families hid, fed and cared for by Gentile friends. Reagan called for the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the Berlin Wall, which had separated West and East Berlin since 1961. [7][citation needed], Peter Robinson, the White House speech writer who drafted the address, said that the phrase "tear down this wall" was inspired by a conversation with Ingeborg Elz of West Berlin; in a conversation with Robinson, Elz remarked, "If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of Glasnost and perestroika he can prove it by getting rid of this wall. The district of Kreuzberg, in particular, was targeted in this respect, with movement throughout this portion of the city in effect restrained completely (for instance the U1 U-Bahn line was shut down). She told Robinson that if Gorbachev was serious about reforms, he could prove it by coming to Berlin and getting rid of the wall, Robinson said. I came back to the house and turned on the television and left it on for hours, Robinson said. He records impressions of his own reaction and Robinson's at the time. For the next three weeks, the National Security Council and the State Department went back and forth with the White House communications team to change the speech.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. [citation needed], The speech drew controversy within the Reagan administration, with several senior staffers and aides advising against the phrase, saying anything that might cause further East-West tensions or potential embarrassment to Gorbachev, with whom President Reagan had built a good relationship, should be omitted.
[12] Reagan then made his speech at the Brandenburg Gate at 2:00p.m., in front of two panes of bulletproof glass. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall", also known as the Berlin Wall Speech, was a speech delivered by United States President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987. All he did was try to reflect Reagans policies and positions. In one case, a White House official thought it was even un-presidential, he recalled. Only Reagan could have said those words because it was what he truly believed, Robinson said. The passage which includes the legendary line, Mr. The "tear down this wall" speech was not the first time Reagan had addressed the issue of the Berlin Wall. Ronald Reagan could imagine a different kind of world. A month later, she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis. Between 1949 and the walls inception, its estimated that over 2.5 million East Germans fled to the West in search of a less repressive life. Happily for Berliners, though, the speech also foreshadowed events to come: Two years later, on November 9, 1989, joyful East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin. He was assigned to write the remarks Reagan was to deliver at the Brandenburg Gate, an 18th-century monument that formed part of the Berlin Wall.
[19], Author James Mann disagreed with both critics like Hoare, who saw Reagan's speech as having no real effect, and those who praised the speech as key to shaking Soviet confidence. In 1952, he read more, During the Spanish-American War, Filipino rebels led by Emilio Aguinaldo proclaim the independence of the Philippines after 300 years of Spanish rule. Theyve gotten used to it by now, the diplomat said. [9] This led to a friendly exchange of letters between Robinson and Dolan over their differing accounts, which The Wall Street Journal published.[10][11]. [13] Among the spectators were West German President Richard von Weizscker, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and West Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen. Robinson then stepped in. Nevertheless, Reagan liked the passage, saying, "I think we'll leave it in. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The speech became retroactively prophetic, if that makes sense, said Robinson, who is the Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow at Hoover. It was also a reminder that despite the Soviet leaders public statements about a new relationship with the West, the U.S. wanted to see action taken to lessen Cold War tensions. 2022 A&E Television Networks, LLC. He could see a world without the Berlin Wall. The read more, Nicole Brown Simpson, famous football player O.J. Bush served in the Navy during World War II and survived a harrowing ordeal when his torpedo bomber was shot down over the Pacific. Robinson realized that Berlin residents had simply stopped talking about the wall rather than become used to it. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the East German government to prevent its citizens from escaping to the West. On June 12, 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany. How Reagan's 'Tear Down This Wall' Speech Marked a Cold War Turning Point. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! [15] The fact that West German police acted in a similar way has, however seldom, been noted in accounts such as these. Stanford University. "[14], Another highlight of the speech was Reagan's call to end the arms race with his reference to the Soviets' SS-20 nuclear weapons, and the possibility "not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. I now look back and think, What was I thinking? By mid-August, Filipino rebels and U.S. troops had ousted the Spanish, but Aguinaldos hopes for independence were dashed when read more, Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India, is found guilty of electoral corruption in her successful 1971 campaign. Depending on weather conditions, he might even be picked up in Moscow by radio. Most listeners at the time viewed Reagans speech as a dramatic appeal to Gorbachev to renew negotiations on nuclear arms reductions. Gorbachev, tear down this wall was almost cut after State Department and National Security Council advisers found them outlandish and provocative, Robinson said. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! (Image credit: National Archives, no. But I was convinced.. Presented with the problem of a youth- and brain-drain, East German leader Erich Honecker organized the walls erection to prevent more people from leaving East Germany. Mann claimed that Reagan "wasn't trying to land a knockout blow on the Soviet regime, nor was he engaging in mere political theater. [1][2] The name is derived from a key line in the middle of the speech: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!". Bush drifted in the water for several hours until a U.S. read more, On June 12, 1942,Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, receives a diary for her 13th birthday. He characterized the speech as a way for Reagan to assuage his right-wing critics that he was still tough on communism, while also extending a renewed invitation to Gorbachev to work together to create "the vastly more relaxed climate in which the Soviets sat on their hands when the wall came down." Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Reagan then went on to ask Gorbachev to undertake serious arms reduction talks with the United States. "[12] East Germany's communist rulers were not impressed, dismissing the speech as "an absurd demonstration by a cold warrior", as later recalled by Politburo member Gnter Schabowski. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990. READ MORE: How Reagan's 'Tear Down This Wall' Speech Marked a Cold War Turning Point, President Reagan challenges Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall", https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reagan-challenges-gorbachev-to-tear-down-the-berlin-wall. According to an account by Robinson, he traveled to West Germany to inspect potential speech venues, and gained an overall sense that the majority of West Berliners opposed the wall. Despite calls for her resignation, Gandhi refused to give up Indias top office and later declared martial law in the country when public demonstrations threatened read more. Over the next 25 years, at least 140 people died trying to leave East Germany. Peter Robinson spent six years in the White House, serving from 1982 to 1983 as chief speechwriter to Vice President George Bush and from 1983 to 1988 as special assistant and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan. The future president also received a Purple Heart for wounds received during battle.
He was full of ideas about what Reagan should not say, Robinson said, including under no circumstance was Reagan to make a big deal about the Berlin Wall. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. In 1945, following Germanys defeat in World War II, the nations capital, Berlin, was divided into four sections, with the Americans, British and French controlling the western region and the Soviets gaining power in the eastern region. 75856239), Five questions with Michele Barry on preventing pandemics upstream, Power forward: Womens basketball coach Tara VanDerveer talks about the impact of Title IX. 75856239). The diving robot explored sunken planes, ships, and a submarine, and descended nearly 1 km. The wall cannot withstand freedom. Gorbachev, tear down this wall and how they were almost cut from the speech. Special features of OceanOneK allow its operators to feel like they, too, are interacting with these deep-water destinations. "[13], Former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he would never forget standing near Reagan when he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. In a 2007 opinion article in The New York Times, he put the speech in the context of previous Reagan overtures to the Soviet Union, such as the Reykjavik summit of the previous year, which had very nearly resulted in an agreement to eliminate American and Soviet nuclear weapons entirely. Michelle Barry, director of Stanfords Center for Innovation in Global Health, says that epidemics are inevitable but pandemics dont have to be. "Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War" (2009), This page was last edited on 19 June 2022, at 00:25. I felt astounded. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! American officials in West Germany and presidential speechwriters, including Peter Robinson, thought otherwise. Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in womens college basketball history, talks about the impact of Title IX on womens sports in this episode of the podcastSchools In. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (Image credit: National Archives, no. Simpsons ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicoles home in Brentwood, California, in what quickly becomes one of the most highly publicized trials of the century. The conversation then turned to the hostess, Ingeborg Elz. "[18], In a September 2012 article in The Atlantic, Liam Hoare pointed to the many reasons for the tendency for American media to focus on the significance of this particular speech, without weighing the complexity of the events as they unfolded in both East and West Germany and the Soviet Union. Man O War read more, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy receives one of the Navys highest honor for gallantry for his heroic actions as the commanding officer of a motor torpedo boatduring World War II on June 12, 1944. With overwhelming read more. How do you think we feel about that wall? Robinson said. Gorbachev, who had been in office since 1985, stepped down from his post as Soviet leader in 1991. That Monday, when the team met with the president, Griscom asked Reagan if he had any thoughts about Robinsons speech. West Berlin, this little pocket deep inside East Germany, was a modern city. There, Robinson climbed a set of steps to an observation platform that looked into East Berlin. As he peered into the communist state, It was though the color had drained from the camera, he said. [14], Later on in his speech, President Reagan said, "As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, 'This wall will fall. And I thought, I committed just the kind of gaffe that the diplomat wants the president to avoid. "[citation needed], The speech received "relatively little coverage from the media", Time magazine wrote 20 years later. I knew at that moment that if the president had been there in my place, he would have responded to that remark, the decency of it, the simplicity, the power, the truthfulness of it, he said. With the wall as a backdrop, President Reagan declared to a West Berlin crowd in 1987, There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. He then called upon his Soviet counterpart: Secretary General Gorbachev, if you seek peaceif you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europeif you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Though Reagan's speech received relatively little media coverage at the time, it became widely known after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. If you put him in a position to give a speech in front of the Berlin Wall, he would feel a certain sense of duty to tell the truth as he saw it, Robinson said. The speech belongs to Ronald Reagan., Melissa De Witte, Stanford News Service: (650) 723-6438, mdewitte@stanford.edu. There was a silence. Two years earlier, Robinson had been working for Reagan as one of his speechwriters. There was a feeling that everything was in a state of disrepair and badly maintained, but turn around and you saw color, activity, people going places. What was once deemed audacious had become auspicious.
Thats what I want to say to them. By the time the wall fell, Robinson had left the White House and was a graduate student at Stanford Graduate School of Business. I can remember driving from the business school to the house I was renting with three other buddies in Portola Valley and I had the car radio on. With a little stealth, they snuck a draft to Reagan at the end of an especially busy week before anyone else could see it.
Robinson asked if there was anything Reagan wanted to convey to the people listening from the other side. All Rights Reserved.
1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Ronald Reagan, address at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987.
But according to Reagans speechwriter, Hoover Institution fellow Peter Robinson, those powerful words came close to being left unsaid. Feeling despondent, Robinson hoped that his next meeting with a high-ranking American diplomat would provide him the material needed for the speech. read more, The first Bush president, George Herbert Walker Bush, is born in Milton, Massachusetts. During World War II, Evers volunteered for the U.S. Army and participated in the Normandy invasion. Robinson, who himself was astounded by the walls omnipresence, asked his dinner companions if they had as the diplomat insisted really become used to the 27-mile barricade that enclosed their city. Man O War was the biggest star yet in a country obsessed with horse racing, and the most successful thoroughbred of his generation. White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker objected, saying it sounded "extreme" and "unpresidential", and Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor Colin Powell agreed.