On this day, June 12, 1987, President Ronald ReaganTrump’s call for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down the Berlin Wall” was widely considered a defining moment of the Reagan presidency, according to Stanford University.
The line “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” also became a critical statement of the 1980s.
President Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech was given after the G-7 summit in Venice.
According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, as Reagan spoke, his words were spreading across both sides of the Berlin Wall, reaching both East and West Germany.
President Reagan delivers a speech Brandenburg Gate in Berlin,
President Ronald Reagan is shown at the Durenberger Republican Convention Rally in 1982. In his speech on June 12, 1987, he said, “Every man standing before the Brandenburg Gate is a German separated from his fellows. Every man is a Berliner forced to look at his own wound.” (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
“Behind me stands a wall that encloses the free areas of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe,” Reagan said.
“Every man standing before the Brandenburg Gate is a German, separated from his comrades. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look at his wound.”
On this day in history, February 6, 1911, President Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois
Reagan added, “As long as this gate remains closed, as long as this vestige of the Wall remains standing, not only the German question will remain open, but the question of freedom for all mankind will remain open.”
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this door. Mr. Gorbachev, knock down this wall.”
He said, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you want peace, if you want prosperity for the Soviet Union and Russia, you can teach your enemies a lesson.” Eastern EuropeIf you want liberalisation, come to this gate.”
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this door. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” Reagan said, as reported by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down the Berlin Wall.” (Getty Images)
National Geographic said that for nearly three decades Berlin was divided not just by ideology but also by a concrete barrier, a bleak symbol of the Cold War.
When the war was going on between America and the Soviet Union Domination in spaceMoreover, they were engaged in equally intense competition on land, in Europe.
“Cold War tensions escalated further in 1961, when the Soviet-backed government in East Germany began building the Berlin Wall,” CBS News wrote.
The Berlin Wall was “hastily erected and torn down in protest.”
“The Berlin Wall was built to separate East Berlin from the parts of the city occupied by the three main Western powers (the United States, Great Britain, and France) and to prevent large-scale illegal migration from the Soviet bloc to the West.”
National Geographic says the Berlin Wall was “hastily erected and torn down in protest; the Berlin Wall was nearly 27 miles long and was protected with barbed wire, attack dogs, and 55,000 landmines.”
On the left are Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan in April 1991, when a piece of the Berlin Wall was delivered to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. On the right, the artwork on display on the library campus. (Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute)
Time magazine wrote that more than 25 years after the Berlin Wall divided the city’s east and west – and after President Reagan delivered his famous speech in 1987 – it was not Mr Gorbachev but the German people who finally brought the wall down on November 9, 1989.
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“The story of the Berlin Wall is a story of division and repression, but it is also a story of desire for freedom – and the events that led to its collapse are no exception,” the same source says.
President Reagan gave his famous speech in 1987 saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” – it was not Mr. Gorbachev, but the German people who ultimately tore down the wall on November 9, 1989. (Dirk Helstead/Getty Images)
“In less than three years after President Reagan personally demanded that General Secretary Gorbachev do so, the wall was torn down,” David Trulio, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, told Fox News Digital.
A fragment of the Wall “is now an inspirational symbol of the vision, moral courage and strength needed to overcome tyranny in the Cold War.”
“A fragment of it, formerly a veritable instrument of oppression, lies a short distance from President Reagan’s final resting place Simi Valley, CaliforniaHe added, “And now it remains an inspirational symbol of the vision, moral courage and strength needed to overcome Cold War tyranny.”
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Trulio also said, “Since the Reagan Library opened in 1991, millions of people have placed their hands on this section of the wall – literally touched a piece of history – and reflected on President Reagan’s contributions to the spread of freedom.”
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Fox News Digital’s Maureen McKay contributed reporting.
