12 June 1987: Reagan Delivers Tear Down This Wall Speech
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin and delivered one of the most memorable speeches of the Cold War era. Speaking within sight of the Berlin Wall, which had divided the city since 1961, Reagan issued a direct challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
The speech came at a pivotal moment in East-West relations. Gorbachev had introduced policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in the Soviet Union, raising hopes for improved relations and potentially significant changes in Eastern Europe. Reagan sought to test whether these reforms would extend to the most visible symbol of Communist oppression: the Berlin Wall that separated families and imprisoned millions of East Germans behind the Iron Curtain.
The four words that became iconic nearly did not make it into the speech. State Department officials and some National Security Council staff argued that the language was too provocative and could undermine delicate diplomatic efforts with the Soviets. They submitted multiple alternative drafts, but Reagan insisted on keeping the challenge, recognizing its potential power and believing it captured an essential truth.
Speaking to a crowd of approximately 45,000 people gathered at the Reichstag building, Reagan acknowledged the progress represented by Soviet reforms but argued that true openness required tearing down the barrier that divided 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, he declared.
At the time, the speech received relatively modest attention in the American press, overshadowed by other news. Many commentators dismissed the call to tear down the wall as empty rhetoric, given the walls seemingly permanent presence in the political landscape of divided Europe. The Soviet news agency TASS called the speech openly provocative and war-mongering.
Yet just two and a half years later, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell as East Germany opened its borders amid peaceful protests throughout Eastern Europe. While the complex factors that led to the walls collapse extended far beyond any single speech, Reagans words at the Brandenburg Gate came to symbolize the Western commitment to freedom that helped bring the Cold War to an end.
