"Mr. Gorbachov! Tear down this wall!"
That alone, IMNSHO, made up for a whole hell of a lot.
Because Gorbachev ran right out the next day and did it…
I mean really, what else is a US President going to say at the Berlin Wall?
He knew his sound bites.
Except when the curtain was pulled back and we saw his wife feed him a line.
And some ask today, in other threads, what affect RWR had on us today? God Bless President Reagan!
<channeling random politician>
“Mr. Gorbachev, while understanding the unique circumstances surrounding the fall of the Nazis, and while respecting the choices your great nation has made, I believe our nations should work towards the mutal cause of peace and freedom. This wall symbolizes a divide between our great countries - one which would be in our mutual interests to…”
Time passes…Checking Watch…
“…And in closing, let me reiterate that we understand the needs of security and the mutual love of peace the Soviet people’s have. Perhaps one day this wall will no longer divide us!”
In fact, the Berlin Wall speech was quite controversial at the time, as was Reagan’s calling the Soviet Union an ‘Evil Empire’. There were plenty of breathless editorials about “Ronnie Raygun” the cowboy going around with his two-bit moralizing, acting like the sheriff in town, just like the actor he is, yada yada yada.
He was a great man.
Amen. Happy Trails, Mr. President.
“Ich bin ein Berlinner” (jelly donut or not) kicks “tear down this wall”'s ass.
Agreed.
“Ask not what your country can do for you…”
A much more resonant–and conservative–sound byte from the president who invented modern media sound bytes, compared to any offered by the president who brought mass media politics to a high art.
Neither were notably great in the high office, mind, IMO. Different though closely related in time, neither of 'em very prescient. Well intentioned, both of 'em, but masters of Unintended Consequences.
And both of 'em would have hated being historical bookends to each other. Too bad I can’t help regarding them that way. Maybe time and deeper scholarship may help.
Veb
Mr. Reagan was the president of my childhood. I vividly remember watching him on television with awe-- this man was the boss of everybody! I had a lot of affection for him.
I was sad when I heard the news this morning. I feel for Nancy-- how terrible to watch the man you love deteriorate over ten long years.
NBC’s Dateline special tonight was very kind, as I suppose is to be expected when someone has just died. They glossed over Iran/Contra, and barely mentioned the “controversy” over the hostages in Iran, never even saying what the controversy was. For those of you who were babes in arms then, or not born yet, there were some who believed (I among them) that Reagan made a deal with the Iatollah Khomeini to hold the 55 hostages in Iran until after the 1980 election, so that he (Reagan) could hold Carter’s inability to secure their release over Carter’s head during the campaign. I know it’ll never be proved. Like the “conspiracy” to kill JFK, it will live on, forever unresolved.
20 years after “Ich bin ein Berlinner,” the wall still stood. 20 years after “tear down this wall” the wall is ancient history, as is the old Soviet Union and the threat it posed.
Kennedy’s line was a great sound bite, but that was all; Reagan’s was the catalyst that changed Germany, the Soviet Union and the balance of world power.
Actually, he went against the persistent advice and dire warnings of his own State Department and advisors to say that. He was a master of symbolism and seized that day as he stood at Brandenburg Gate. Then Governing Mayor of Berlin, Richard von Weizsäcker, had said that, “The German issue will remain open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed”. Reagan sought to smash it open with his powerful rhetoric.
Regardless of what you might think about his politics, his economics, or his acting, the man was a hell of an American.
Raise your glasses, to Ronnie.
Yes he was.
Good post, Sami41.
Riiiight, because it was the line that made the difference as opposed to, you know, the stuff people did.
You mean like travel to Iceland to meet with the Soviet president and reach an agreement to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons? That sort of stuff?
From Merriam-Webster:
Catalyst=An agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.
I stand by my comment.
Er…we were talking about the Berlin Wall I thought.
Trace the chain of events which the speech kicked off which culminated in the Wall’s coming down.