Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall
On June 12, 1987, twenty-three years ago today, President Ronald Reagan made one of his more famous speeches while speaking to the citizens of West Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. The speech is most remembered for Reagan's demand for Russian General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. This part of the speech is shown below in the Youtube clip. In the clip, Reagan 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! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
The wall did not come down during Reagan's term, but it did fall two years later on November 9, 1989 during the first year of his successor, President George H. W. Bush. Starting that evening, and in the days and weeks that followed, people came to the wall with sledgehammers or otherwise hammers and chisels to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts of it in the process and creating several unofficial border crossings.
Today, if you go to the Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California you can see a section of the Berlin Wall, along with a plaque recognizing Reagan's contribution to its eventual demise.
“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!
The wall did not come down during Reagan's term, but it did fall two years later on November 9, 1989 during the first year of his successor, President George H. W. Bush. Starting that evening, and in the days and weeks that followed, people came to the wall with sledgehammers or otherwise hammers and chisels to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts of it in the process and creating several unofficial border crossings.
Today, if you go to the Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California you can see a section of the Berlin Wall, along with a plaque recognizing Reagan's contribution to its eventual demise.