�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 [� ]
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 [� ]
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 [� ]
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!�
~President Ronald Wilson Reagan
The following is the text and audio of a speech that President
Ronald Reagan gave at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987. It could be called
�The Speech that Destroyed Communism�, but it is generally referred to as �Tear
Down this Wall� for Reagan�s demand that Mikhail Gorbachev, the then leader of
the Soviet Union, tear down the Berlin wall, a wall which, at the time,
separated East and West Berlin. The Berlin wall had been built by the communist
nation of East Germany in order to prevent its citizens from
escaping to the freedom of the democratic west. It existed as the proof of
communism�s failure. It showed that the only way that communism could survive
was by stripping the people of every last shred of personal freedom and
dignity.
Now, 18 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, and the end of the Soviet Union and world communism, we are again
starting to hear from the communist movement. We are again starting to hear the
old promises of �a worker�s paradise� of �freedom from capitalist oppression�.
An entire generation has grown up which has never seen the communist �gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers�
[Reagan]. To this generation communism�s lies may seem enticing, because this
generation does not have the background to know just how total communism�s
deception is.
I was recently talking to a college student about this, about the history of communism and its failure. The student replied to me, �Yes, but as I understand it, that wasn�t true communism.� It seems communism�s lies have become even more elaborate. Having seen the fall of the communist world and the proof of communism�s failure, communists now strive to distance themselves from that failure. They claim that that was all a mistake and not representative of their true intentions. If it was a mistake, it was a mistake that lasted for 70 years. I almost didn�t know what to say to this student. Fortunately, another student did. He said, �Communism requires that the government own and control everything, and wherever this is true, there can be no freedom.�
I have created this web page because we need to remember what
communism was and is. Communism did not offer �freedom� or �paradise�. It
offered only a brutish, totalitarian form of government which crushed the lives
and dreams of those unfortunate enough to be trapped under its rule. Communism
did not offer its citizens a better life free from the oppression of the rich;
it offered its citizens oppression by a government that took every last bit of
freedom and returned only food shortages. The only distinction of communism is
that it was tried in over half the world and failed everywhere. Thus, it has
the distinction of being the only political system in history which has always
been a failure.
I believe that it is important that we remember history. I believe that it is important that we remember that communism once imprisoned half the world with barbed wire, barking dogs, guns and land mines, and I believe it is important that we remember that there was once a man who helped free the world from communism�s slavery.
As such, I present President Ronald Reagan�s speech.
~Aaron Kavanaugh, July 7th, 2007
�Tear Down this Wall�
Thank you
very much.
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 Berliner lip.]
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 FederalRepublic 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.