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Tear down this wall!
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{{Short description|1987 Ronald Reagan speech in West Berlin}} {{Use American English|date=June 2023}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}} {{Infobox event | title = "Tear down this wall" | image = President Ronald Reagan's Speech at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987.webm | image_size = 300px | caption = Complete speech. The passage "tear down this wall" begins at 11:55 into this video. | date = {{start date |1987|06|12}} | time = | venue = Near the [[Brandenburg Gate]] at the presently named [[Platz des 18. März]] | place = [[West Berlin]] | coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LON|region:XXXX_type:event|display=inline,title}} --> | participants = [[Ronald Reagan]] | url = <!-- {{URL|example.com}}, use for link to video; --> | notes = {{wikisource-inline|Ronald Reagan's Berlin Wall Speech|the speech|single=yes}} }} On June 12, 1987, at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], United States president [[Ronald Reagan]] delivered a speech commonly known by a key line from the middle part: "'''Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'''" Reagan called for Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] to open the [[Berlin Wall]], which had encircled [[West Berlin]] since 1961.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ronald Reagan speech, Tear Down This Wall|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/speeches/reagan_berlin.htm|website=USAF Air University|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=July 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717184114/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/speeches/reagan_berlin.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/11/reagan-challenges-gorbachev-to-tear-down-berlin-wall-june-12-1987-239376|title=Reagan challenges Gorbachev to 'tear down' Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987|website=[[Politico]]|date=June 11, 2017 }}</ref><ref name="Osborn">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/13/world/excerpts-from-reagan-s-talk-at-the-berlin-wall.html|title=Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall|work=New York Times|date=June 13, 1987|access-date=June 12, 2023|first=John|last=Osborn}}</ref> The following day, ''The New York Times'' carried Reagan’s picture on the front page, below the title "Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall". Its impact on the Kremlin became widely known after the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]] in 1989.<ref name="Osborn"/> 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 1963 speech "''[[Ich bin ein Berliner]]''".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daum|first=Andreas|author-link=Andreas Daum|title=Kennedy in Berlin|location=New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2008|pages=8, 200, 209‒11}}</ref> Reagan's speech was written by [[Peter Robinson (speechwriter)|Peter Robinson]].
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