31st Anniversary, Ronald Reagan's Berlin Wall Speech

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

 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!

—Ronald Reagan, address at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary