"Tear Down This Wall".

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.
• Position: Ronald Reagan on Berlin Wall - Brief article

"Tear Down This Wall"

Text and video: www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganbrandenburggate.htm

By Ronald Reagan, President of the United States

Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa, Contributing Editor

Twenty years ago on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, signaling the impending collapse of the Soviet Empire in Eastern and Central Europe. Two years before the Wall came down; President Ronald Reagan spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in the Wall's shadow. There, he dramatically called upon Soviet leader Gorbachev to "tear down" the Wall, and predicted that the Wall and the totalitarian system it symbolized could not withstand freedom's challenge.

Reagan called the Wall a "scar" that divided not only a great city and country, but a continent. He reviewed the history of Berlin since 1945, rising from the ashes of World War II with prosperity and freedom allowed to flourish in the west, but stifled in the east.

The President sensed, however, that even the Soviets were beginning to "understand the importance of freedom." There were signs of openness and reform under Gorbachev. He posed the question: "Are these the beginnings of...