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Ronald Reagan
Tear Down This Wall (12 June,
1987)
This speech by President Ronald Reagan to the people of West Berlin contains
one of the most memorable lines spoken during his presidency. The Berlin
Wall, referred to by the President, was built by Communists in August 1961
to keep Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into
Democratic West Berlin. The twelve-foot concrete wall extended for a hundred
miles, surrounding West Berlin, and included electrified fences and guard
posts. The wall stood as a stark symbol of the decades-old Cold War between
the United States and Soviet Union in which the two politically opposed
superpowers continually wrestled for dominance, stopping just short of
actual warfare.
Tear Down This Wall
Chancellor
Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty-four years
ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of
this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other
presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself,
make my second visit to your city.
We come to
Berlin, we American presidents, because it's our duty to speak, in this
place, of freedom. But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things
as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years
older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the
Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the
composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You
see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because
wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. [I
still have a suitcase in Berlin.]
Our gathering
today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I
understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those
listening throughout Eastern Europe, a special word: Although I cannot
be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those
standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow
countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt
nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.]
Behind me
stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a
vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe.
From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of
barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there
may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and
checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel,
still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a
totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most
clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the
television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent
upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every
man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner,
forced to look upon a scar.
President von
Weizsacker has said, "The German question is open as long as the
Brandenburg Gate is closed." Today I say: As long as the gate is closed,
as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the
German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for
all mankind. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a
message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.
In this
season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their
air-raid shelters to find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the
people of the United States reached out to help. And in 1947 Secretary
of State--as you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of
what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Speaking precisely 40
years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any
country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and
chaos."
In the
Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th
anniversary of the Marshall Plan. I was struck by the sign on a
burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt. I understand that
Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted
throughout the western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The
Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world." A strong,
free world in the West, that dream became real. Japan rose from ruin to
become an economic giant. Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation
in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth; the European
Community was founded.
In West
Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the
Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders
understood the practical importance of liberty--that just as truth can
flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so
prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy
economic freedom. The German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free
trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in
West Germany and Berlin doubled.
Where four
decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest
industrial output of any city in Germany--busy office blocks, fine homes
and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland.
Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are
two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and
museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing,
automobiles--the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm. From devastation, from
utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once
again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. The Soviets may have had
other plans. But my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't
count on--Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze.
[Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.]
In the 1950s,
Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see
a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being
unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see
failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even
want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet
Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there
stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion:
Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among
the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.
And now the
Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the
importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of
reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released.
Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some
economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom
from state control.
Are these the
beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token
gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen
the Soviet system without changing it? 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!
I understand
the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent--
and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens.
To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must
maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we
must strive to reduce arms on both sides.
Beginning 10
years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new
threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles, capable
of striking every capital in Europe. The Western alliance responded by
committing itself to a counter-deployment unless the Soviets agreed to
negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on
both sides. For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in
earnestness. As the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its
counter-deployment, there were difficult days--days of protests like
those during my 1982 visit to this city--and the Soviets later walked
away from the table.
But through
it all, the alliance held firm. And I invite those who protested then--
I invite those who protest today--to mark this fact: Because we remained
strong, the Soviets came back to the table. And because we remained
strong, today we have within reach 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.
As I speak,
NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland to review the progress of our
proposals for eliminating these weapons. At the talks in Geneva, we have
also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons. And the Western
allies have likewise made far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of
conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.
While we
pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the
capacity to deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might
occur. And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is
pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative--research to base deterrence
not on the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that truly
defend; on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but
shield them. By these means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and
all the world. But we must remember a crucial fact: East and West do not
mistrust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we
mistrust each other. And our differences are not about weapons but about
liberty. When President Kennedy spoke at the City Hall those 24 years
ago, freedom was encircled, Berlin was under siege. And today, despite
all the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its liberty.
And freedom itself is transforming the globe.
In the
Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a
rebirth. Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after
miracle of economic growth. In the industrialized nations, a
technological revolution is taking place--a revolution marked by rapid,
dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.
In Europe,
only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of
freedom. Yet in this age of redoubled economic growth, of information
and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It must make
fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete.
Today thus
represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to cooperate
with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that
separate people, to create a safe, freer world. And surely there is no
better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a
start. Free people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States
stands for the strict observance and full implementation of all parts of
the Four Power Agreement of 1971. Let us use this occasion, the 750th
anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller,
richer life for the Berlin of the future. Together, let us maintain and
develop the ties between the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of
Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.
And I invite
Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the
city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can
enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the
world.
To open
Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand the
vital air access to this city, finding ways of making commercial air
service to Berlin more convenient, more comfortable, and more
economical. We look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the
chief aviation hubs in all central Europe.
With our
French and British partners, the United States is prepared to help bring
international meetings to Berlin. It would be only fitting for Berlin to
serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on
human rights and arms control or other issues that call for
international cooperation.
There is no
better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young
minds, and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges,
cultural events, and other programs for young Berliners from the East.
Our French and British friends, I'm certain, will do the same. And it's
my hope that an authority can be found in East Berlin to sponsor visits
from young people of the Western sectors.
One final
proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment
and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of
Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988
Olympics to take place in the North. International sports competitions
of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city. And what
better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to
offer in some future year to hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East
and West? In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have
built a great city. You've done so in spite of threats--the Soviet
attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives
in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall.
What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your
fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there's something
deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of
life--not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being
completely disabused of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the
difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues
to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding
totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or
aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation,
that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a
word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love--love both
profound and abiding.
Perhaps this
gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of
all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness
because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse
to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even
symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East
Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular
structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever
since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as
the tower's one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with
paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes
that sphere--that sphere that towers over all Berlin--the light makes
the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of
love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.
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. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across
Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot
withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.
And I would
like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been
questioned since I've been here about certain demonstrations against my
coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who
demonstrate so. I wonder if they have 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're doing again.
Thank you and
God bless you all.
Ronald Reagan
- June 12, 1987
Postnote: Two
years later, in November 1989, East Germans issued a decree for the wall
to be opened, allowing people to travel freely into West Berlin. In some
cases, families that had been separated for decades were finally
reunited. The wall was torn down altogether by the end of 1990 upon the
collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, thus
symbolizing the end of the Cold War era.
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