A speechwriter remembers Reagan's freedom call.
On June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan stood in front of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate rising behind him, to deliver a speech I had drafted. "General Secretary Gorbachev," the president said, "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!"
Back in Washington a few weeks earlier, the State Department and National Security Council had objected to this passage, arguing that it would sound unduly provocative. Yet when I asked the president what message he wanted to convey to the East--conducting research in Berlin, I had learned that listeners throughout East Germany would be able to hear the speech on their radios--Reagan singled out this part of the draft.
"That wall has to come down," the president replied. "That's what I'd like to say to them." The State Department and National Security Council made repeated attempts to strike the passage; the president overruled them. A year-and-a-half after Reagan delivered the address, the Berlin Wall came down.
via www.forbes.com
It's amazing to think that it was 20 years ago today that the wall came down -- and an entire generation doesn't even know what it was like to live with that wall. And it's strange to think how controversial that speech was and how various forces -- even in a Reagan State Department -- were so opposed to a statement of such obvious moral clarity and necessity.
Here's a video montage that recounts some of the history of the wall. See Reagan's speech around 3:20.
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