We all remember that iconic call that Ronald Reagan made at the steps of the Berlin Wall’s Brandenburg Gate…”Gorbachev tear down this Wall!”
The speech writer who tendered that speech writes a facinating story of how that iconic call came to be. Click here to read his facinating account. Sec of State George Shultz, State Department and National Security Council all objected to that call. Even through many revisions where Regan insisted that it was the right thing to do, they still clammered in fear not to include such an aggressive call.
Getting in the limo to the Wall, Regan made the final decision to keep that line in that now famous speech. ‘The boys at State are going to kill me,’ Regan said, ‘but it’s the right thing to do.’
That is leadership. That is courage. That is facing down the fear of others and still doing the right thing.
Here is some of the goosebump inspiring text of that speech.
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. . . . 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. . . . As long as this 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. . . .
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!
The wall was torn down 2 years later during a time of civil unrest the GDR dismantled the wall thus unifying Germany, and indeed all of Europe.
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