When and where did Reagan deliver the 'tear down this wall' speech?
Reagan delivered the speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on the 12th of June 1987, at 2:00 p.m.
Questions about Tear down this wall!
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who wrote the speech?
Peter Robinson, a White House speechwriter, drafted the address. Chief speechwriter Anthony Dolan, however, claims Reagan himself came up with the key line in an earlier Oval Office meeting.
Why did Reagan's own aides oppose the phrase?
Senior staffers including White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker and Deputy National Security Advisor Colin Powell worried the line was 'extreme' and 'unpresidential,' and that it could embarrass Gorbachev and damage the relationship Reagan had built with him.
How was the speech received at the time?
It received relatively little media coverage initially. The Soviet press agency TASS called it 'openly provocative.' East German officials dismissed it as the work of a cold warrior. Its status grew mainly after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
What was the context of protests surrounding the visit?
50,000 people demonstrated against Reagan's presence in West Berlin the day before his visit. The city mounted its largest police deployment since World War II, and the district of Kreuzberg was locked down with the U1 U-Bahn line shut down.
What did James Mann argue about the speech's historical significance?
In a 2007 New York Times opinion piece, Mann argued Reagan was neither delivering a knockout blow to the Soviet system nor engaged in political theater. He was calibrating a message that reassured domestic critics while keeping dialogue with Gorbachev open, helping to shape the conditions for the Cold War's end.