A Symbol of Hope Reagan's Tear Down the Wall Address

The most famous four words of the Cold War almost went unsaid. When President Ronald Reagan stood at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on June 12, ... On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, United States president Ronald Reagan gave a speech that is now known by a key line from the middle part: "Mr. ... On June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan addressed a crowd of 20,000 people in West Berlin in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. The words he delivered that afternoon ... Ultimately, by striving to end the nuclear arms race and avoid Armageddon, he contributed to the dynamics that led to the dissolution of the ... Reagan's main goal was to convince his audience that Western democracy was a better alternative to communism, and that, while the Western world represented ... President Reagan sought today to undercut Europe's perception of Mikhail S. Gorbachev as a leader of peace, bluntly challenging the Soviet leader to tear down ... This 1-page handout provides the original American Speech transcript (excerpt) as well as the document image for students to analyze with guiding questions. Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall. The wall had been a symbol of the Communist era in a divided ... The rhetorical situation is that the speaker is Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. His audience consists of the people who attended his ... STANFORD, California — June 12 marked the 30th anniversary of the most subversive speech of Ronald Reagan's presidency, a speech delivered in a ...