Tear down this wall!
Complete speech. The passage "tear down this wall" begins at 11:55 into this video. | |
| Date | June 12, 1987 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Near the Brandenburg Gate at the presently named Platz des 18. März |
| Location | West Berlin |
| Participants | Ronald Reagan |
| The full text of the speech at Wikisource | |
On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, then-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.[1][2][3]
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".[3] 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".[4] Reagan's speech was written by Peter Robinson.
- ^ "Ronald Reagan speech, Tear Down This Wall". USAF Air University. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
- ^ "Reagan challenges Gorbachev to 'tear down' Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987". Politico. June 11, 2017.
- ^ a b Osborn, John (June 13, 1987). "Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall". New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
- ^ Daum, Andreas (2008). Kennedy in Berlin. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 8, 200, 209‒11.