Tear down this wall!

"Tear down this wall"
Complete speech. The passage "tear down this wall" begins at 11:10 into this video.
DateJune 12, 1987 (1987-06-12)
VenueNear the Brandenburg Gate at the presently named Platz des 18. März
LocationWest Berlin
ParticipantsRonald Reagan
The full text of the speech at Wikisource

On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, 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". Its impact on the Kremlin became widely known after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.[4] 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".[5] Reagan's speech was written by Peter Robinson.

  1. ^ "Ronald Reagan speech, Tear Down This Wall". USAF Air University. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  2. ^ "Reagan challenges Gorbachev to 'tear down' Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987". Politico. June 11, 2017.
  3. ^ Osborn, John (June 13, 1987). "Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall". New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  4. ^ Osborn, John (June 13, 1987). "Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall". New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  5. ^ Daum, Andreas (2008). Kennedy in Berlin. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 8, 200, 209‒11.