Editing Tear down this wall!

{{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]].

==Background==
The "tear down this wall" speech was not the first time Reagan had addressed the issue of the [[Berlin Wall]]. 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?".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ronald |first=Reagan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UeTcAwAAQBAJ |title=Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1982 |date=1982 |series=Remarks on Arrival in Berlin |publisher=Best Books on |isbn=978-1-62376-934-5 |language=en}}</ref> In 1986, 25 years after the construction of the wall, in response to [[West Germany|West German]] newspaper ''[[Bild|Bild-Zeitung]]'' asking when he thought the wall could be removed, Reagan said, "I call upon those responsible to dismantle it [today]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ronald |first=Reagan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOfcAwAAQBAJ |title=Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1986 |date=1988 |series=Written Responses to Questions Submitted by Bild-Zeitung of the Federal Republic of Germany |publisher=Best Books on |isbn=978-1-62376-949-9 |language=en}}</ref>

On the day before Reagan's 1987 visit, 50,000 people had demonstrated against the presence of the American president in West Berlin. The city saw the largest police deployment in its history after World War II.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daum|author-link=Andreas Daum|title=Kennedy in Berlin|pages=209‒10}}</ref>  During the visit itself, wide swaths of Berlin were closed off to prevent further anti-Reagan protests. 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 (Berlin U-Bahn)|U1 U-Bahn line]] was shut down).<ref name="Cowboy">{{cite web|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/cowboy-und-indianer/867014.html|title=Cowboy und Indianer|date=June 10, 2007|access-date=January 23, 2015|work=der Tagesspiegel|last=van Bebber|first=Werner}} (in German)</ref> 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".

[[File:Tear Down This Wall p10.jpg|Reagan's cue card with the speech's namesake line|thumb]]
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 Reagan had built a good relationship, should be omitted. American officials in [[West Germany]] and presidential [[speechwriter]]s, including [[Peter Robinson (speechwriter)|Peter Robinson]], thought otherwise. 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 getting little support for suggesting Reagan demand the wall's removal, Robinson kept the phrase in the speech text. On Monday, May 18, 1987, Reagan met with his speechwriters and responded to the speech by saying, "I thought it was a good, solid draft." White House Chief of Staff [[Howard Baker]] objected, saying it sounded "extreme" and "unpresidential", and Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor [[Colin Powell]] agreed. Nevertheless, Reagan liked the passage, saying, "I think we'll leave it in."<ref name="Seizing the Moment">{{cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070610/18speeches.htm|last=Walsh|first=Kenneth |date=June 2007|title=Seizing the Moment|work=U.S. News & World Report|pages=39–41|access-date=June 27, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614042154/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070610/18speeches.htm|archive-date=June 14, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Chief speechwriter [[Anthony Dolan]] gives another account of the line's origins, however, attributing it directly to Reagan. 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.  He records impressions of his own reaction and Robinson's at the time.<ref name="Four Little Words">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704795604574522163362062796|last=Dolan|first=Anthony|date=November 2009|title=Four Little Words|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=June 10, 2012}}</ref> This led to a friendly exchange of letters between Robinson and Dolan over their differing accounts, which ''The Wall Street Journal'' published.<ref name="Robinson Letter">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704402404574527764020693266|last=Robinson|first=Peter|date=November 2009|title=Looking Again at Reagan and 'Tear Down This Wall'|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=June 10, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Dolan Letter">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704431804574538002351222272|last=Dolan|first=Anthony|date=November 2009|title=Speechwriters' Shouts of Joy in Reagan's Oval Office|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=June 10, 2012}}</ref>

== Speech ==
[[File:President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan during his trip to West Berlin.jpg|West Berlin mayor [[Eberhard Diepgen]] watching the speech|thumb]]
Arriving in Berlin on Friday, June 12, 1987, Reagan and his wife were taken to the [[Reichstag building|Reichstag]] where they viewed the wall from a balcony.<ref name="DW">{{cite web|url=http://www.dw.de/reagans-famous-tear-down-this-wall-speech-turns-20/a-2584812|title=Ronald Reagan's Famous "Tear Down This Wall" Speech Turns 20|access-date=November 8, 2014|work=[[Deutsche Welle]]|date=June 12, 2007}}</ref> Reagan then gave his speech at the [[Brandenburg Gate]] at 2:00&nbsp;p.m., in front of two panes of [[bulletproof glass]] shielding him from East Berlin.<ref name="raze">{{cite news|last=Boyd |first=Gerald M. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/13/world/raze-berlin-wall-reagan-urges-soviet.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611035403/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/13/world/raze-berlin-wall-reagan-urges-soviet.html |archive-date=June 11, 2009 |title=Raze Berlin Wall, Reagan Urges Soviet |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 13, 1987 |access-date=January 3, 2022 }}</ref> Among the spectators were West German president [[Richard von Weizsäcker]], chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]], and West Berlin mayor [[Eberhard Diepgen]].<ref name="DW" /> In the speech, he said:

{{blockquote|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. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. 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! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!<ref name="text">{{cite web|url=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/remarks-east-west-relations-brandenburg-gate-west-berlin|title=Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin|access-date=May 29, 2011|publisher=Ronald Reagan Presidential Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428083241/https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/speeches/1987/061287d.htm|archive-date=April 28, 2016}}</ref>}}

==Response and legacy==
[[File:Berlin Wall at the Reagan Library.jpg|A piece of the Berlin Wall located at the [[Ronald Reagan Presidential Library]]|thumb]]
The speech received "relatively little coverage from the media", ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine wrote 20 years later.<ref name="TIME">{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1631828,00.html |title=20 Years After 'Tear Down This Wall'  |access-date=November 15, 2020 |magazine=Time | date=June 11, 2007 | first=Romesh | last=Ratnesar}}</ref> [[John C. Kornblum|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."<ref name="DW" /> 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 [[Günter Schabowski]].<ref name="USATODAY">{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-12-reagan-speech_N.htm |title=Reagan's 'tear down this wall' speech turns 20 |access-date=February 19, 2008 |work=USA Today | date=June 12, 2007}}</ref> The Soviet press agency [[Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union|TASS]] accused Reagan of giving an "openly provocative, war-mongering speech."<ref name="raze"/>

Former West German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] said he would never forget standing near Reagan when he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. "He was a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-07-reagan-world_x.htm|title=Reagan remembered worldwide for his role in ending Cold War division|work=[[USA Today]] |date=June 7, 2004 |first=Jason |last=Keyser}}</ref>

In an interview, Reagan said 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.<ref name="TIME"/>

[[Peter Robinson (speechwriter)|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."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/summer/berlin.html|first = Peter|last = Robinson|author-link = Peter Robinson (speechwriter)|publisher = [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]]|date = Summer 2007|volume = 39|title = 'Tear Down This Wall': How Top Advisers Opposed Reagan's Challenge to Gorbachev&nbsp;– But Lost}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|publisher = [[The Atlantic]]|date = September 20, 2012 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/09/lets-please-stop-crediting-ronald-reagan-for-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/262647/|title=Let's Please Stop Crediting Ronald Reagan for the Fall of the Berlin Wall|first = Liam | last = Hoare}}</ref>

Author [[James Mann (writer)|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 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 [[Reykjavík Summit|Reykjavik summit]] of the previous year, which had very nearly resulted in an agreement to eliminate American and Soviet nuclear weapons entirely. 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." Mann claimed that Reagan "wasn't trying to land a knockout blow on the Soviet regime, nor was he engaging in mere political theater. 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."<ref name="nyt-mann">{{cite news|last1=Mann|first1=James|title=Tear Down That Myth|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/opinion/10mann.html|access-date=May 1, 2017|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 10, 2007}}</ref>

In November 2019, a bronze statue of Reagan was unveiled at the US embassy, near the site of the speech, after the Berlin authorities had refused one to be placed in the city.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/world/europe/ronald-reagan-berlin-wall.html|title=President Reagan Returns to Berlin, this time in Bronze|work=New York Times|date=November 8, 2019|access-date=November 10, 2019|first=Melissa|last=Eddy}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|East Germany|Germany|1980s}}
* [[Evil Empire speech]]
* ''[[Ich bin ein Berliner]]''
* [[Speeches and debates of Ronald Reagan]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Robinson (speechwriter) |title=It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP |date=2000 |publisher=Warner Books |isbn=978-0-446-52665-4 |language=en}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=C. Kornblum |first=John |author-link=John C. Kornblum |date=May 2007 |title=Reagan's Brandenburg Concerto |url=https://www.the-american-interest.com/2007/05/01/reagans-brandenburg-concerto/ |magazine=[[The American Interest]] |volume=2 |issue=5 |issn=1556-5777 |oclc=180161622}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ratnesar |first=Romesh |title=Tear down this wall: a city, a president, and the speech that ended the Cold War |date=2009 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-1-4165-5690-9 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=W. Daum |first=Andreas |author-link=Andreas Daum |url=https://www.aicgs.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/berlin.pdf |title=Berlin--the new capital in the east : a transatlantic appraisal |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-941-44150-6 |location=Washington, DC |pages=49–73 |chapter=America's Berlin, 1945‒2000: Between Myths and Visions |oclc=45217335}}
* {{Cite book |last=Daum |first=Andreas W. |author-link=Andreas Daum |title=Kennedy in Berlin |date=2008 |publisher=[[German Historical Institute]]; [[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-85824-3 |series=Publications of the German Historical Institute |location=Washington, D.C. : Cambridge; New York |oclc=ocm76901946}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|c=Category:1987 Ronald Reagan speech in Berlin|s=Ronald Reagan's Berlin Wall Speech|d=yes|n=no|q=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
* [https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganbrandenburggate.htm Full text and audio MP3 of the speech] at AmericanRhetoric.com
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MDFX-dNtsM Full video] of President Reagan delivering the speech at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], courtesy of the Reagan Foundation.
* [http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?president-ronald-reagan-pictured-at-the-berlin-wall-during-tear-down-this-wall-speech Ronald Reagan Signed and Inscribed Photograph at the Berlin Wall] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114120401/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?president-ronald-reagan-pictured-at-the-berlin-wall-during-tear-down-this-wall-speech |date=January 14, 2015 }} Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720051623/http://hoohila.stanford.edu/commonwealth/programView.php?programID=3282 Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson reflecting on the speech] before the [[Commonwealth Club of California]] in 2004.
* [https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=612 Image of text at National Archives site]
* [https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/summer/berlin.html "Tear Down This Wall" How Top Advisers Opposed Reagan's Challenge to Gorbachev—But Lost] by Peter Robinson
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=ReagansSpeechAtTheBerlinWall|description=of president Ronald Reagan's speech at the Berlin wall (June 12, 1987)}}
*[https://www.c-span.org/video/?515329-1/ronald-reagans-tear-wall-speech Discussion of "Tear Down This Wall" speech featuring Peter Robinson, June 11, 2021], [[C-SPAN]]

{{Berlin Wall}}
{{Cold War}}
{{Presidency of Ronald Reagan}}
{{Authority control}}
{{good article}}

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