<\/a>Robinson couldn\u2019t believe that. When he mentioned that claim at a dinner party that included some of the city\u2019s residents, they gave him an earful. One mentioned he hadn\u2019t seen his sister in two decades because of the Berlin Wall. Another mentioned he walked past a guard at the wall nearly every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat soldier and I speak the same language,\u201d the man informed Robinson. \u201cWe share the same history. But one of us is a zookeeper and the other is an animal, and I am never certain which is which.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the hostess chimed in. Slamming a fist into her palm for emphasis, she angrily said that if Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were serious about open discussion<\/a>, he must do one thing.<\/p>\n Get rid of the Berlin Wall.<\/p>\n Reagan Initially Wasn\u2019t Going to Berlin<\/p>\n Robinson now knew the focus of his speech.<\/p>\n He detailed the backstory behind Reagan\u2019s famous \u201cTear Down This Wall\u201d speech\u2014which the president delivered in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987\u2014in a first-person article<\/a> in 2007.<\/p>\n At first, Germany wasn\u2019t even a planned stop on Reagan\u2019s trip to Europe four decades ago. Reagan, who served in the U.S. Army<\/a> during World War II<\/a>, initially intended to stop in Rome and the Vatican (to visit Pope John Paul II) before attending the G7 Economic Summit in Venice. That was supposed to be it, then it was back to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n But in 1987, Berlin was celebrating its 750th birthday. Its government requested that Reagan speak, and his administration accepted the invitation.<\/p>\n Before he began writing, Robinson received approval from the White House communications team to include a challenge to Gorbachev to bring down the wall. The speechwriter struggled with the phrasing<\/a> in initial drafts, he recalled. After finally settling on \u201ctear down this wall,\u201d Robinson\u2019s draft made its way to the president on May 15, 1987\u2014a month before Reagan\u2019s scheduled address in West Berlin.<\/p>\n A few days later, a meeting that included Robinson commenced in the Oval Office. Robinson asked Reagan about the message he wanted to convey to East Germans, where his speech would be broadcast.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, there\u2019s that passage about tearing down the wall,\u201d Reagan replied, according to Robinson\u2019s account<\/a>. \u201cThe wall has to come down. That\u2019s what I\u2019d like to say to them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Backlash to \u201cTear Down This Wall\u201d<\/p>\n While Reagan liked the line, others in government thought it was unnecessarily confrontational<\/a>.<\/p>\n The State Department, including Secretary of State George Shultz, tried to get it taken out. So did the National Security Council. Robinson recounted an exchange with Colin Powell, then deputy national security adviser, in which the general tried to persuade Robinson to delete the \u201ctear down this wall\u201d reference<\/a>. To his credit\u2014and somewhat to his surprise<\/a>\u2014Robinson held firm.<\/p>\n Robinson remembered at least seven other drafts of the speech, and none of them included that phrase. The pushback was real.<\/p>\n At least in Shultz\u2019s case, the secretary of state wasn\u2019t done trying to plead his case. He did so again after the American delegation reached Italy. As their appearance in Germany neared, Robinson wrote, deputy chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein outlined the various objections to Reagan.<\/p>\n Duberstein then gave Reagan a copy of the speech. When the president asked for Duberstein\u2019s opinion, he replied that he was fine with \u201ctear down this wall,\u201d but only one man had the power to make that call.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s leave it in,\u201d Reagan said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the Right Thing to Do\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t \n\t\t\t\tPresident Ronald Reagan’s Speech at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987\t\t\t<\/p>\n That still wasn\u2019t the end of it.<\/p>\n Mere hours before Reagan was to speak, the State Department and National Security Council made a last-ditch attempt to remove \u201ctear down this wall,\u201d Robinson recalled. As Reagan was en route to the Berlin Wall, though, his mind was made up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe boys at State are going to kill me, but it\u2019s the right thing to do<\/a>,\u201d Reagan said.<\/p>\n Reagan spoke for approximately 26 minutes before an estimated 20,000 people<\/a>. As the speech approached its midway point, Reagan implored: \u201cGeneral 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!\u201d<\/p>\n The large crowd, some waving American and German flags, responded with about 20 seconds of applause. Reagan stopped as they cheered before he resumed speaking.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Gorbachev\u2026 Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!\u201d<\/p>\n Fifteen more seconds of loud cheers followed.<\/p>\n When the Wall Came Down<\/p>\n The impact of Reagan\u2019s speech didn\u2019t resonate right away.<\/p>\n \u201c[We] really were not impressed,\u201d Gorbachev later recalled<\/a>. \u201cWe know that Mr. Reagan\u2019s original profession was actor.\u201d<\/p>\n It took nearly 2\u00bd years before the Berlin Wall (and all it stood for) began to come down on November 9, 1989. It was about time. The wall, as high as 15 feet in some places<\/a>, not only separated East and West Berlin. It also surrounded West Berlin.<\/p>\n Guards stood watch in 302 towers, per research from CNN<\/a>, seeking to stop East Germans from seeking the freedom that the West offered. Communists also placed 55,000 land mines along the wall to dissuade any thoughts of escape. Barbed wire, spikes, and bunkers provided further deterrents.<\/p>\n All that went away once the Berlin Wall came down.<\/p>\n At least 140 people died in escape attempts during the wall\u2019s nearly three decades of existence, CNN reported<\/a>. Those lives were not lost in vain. The wall finally fell, not necessarily because of Reagan\u2019s speech but because of the forces of change that were at play. Berliners will never forget November 9, 1989.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like heaven on earth,\u201d said Klaus Scharioth<\/a>, a former German ambassador to the U.S. \u201cFor many people in Germany, especially, of course, for those with family and friends in the other part, this was one of the best days in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than a year after the Berlin Wall started to crumble, East and West Germany reunited on October 3, 1990.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty<\/p>\n \u2022 Why the CIA once bought up the world\u2019s supply of LSD during the Cold War<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t \t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Ronald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ronald-reagan-berlin-speech-white-house.jpg\")
President Ronald Reagan speaks before the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on June 12, 1987. (White House) <\/p>\n![\"Ronald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/reagan-gorbachev-iceland-summit-getty.jpg\")
U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev chat outside Hofdi House during a summit meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986. (Dirck Halstead\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hqdefault.jpg\"\/)
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The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, displays a fragment of the Berlin Wall. (Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)<\/p>\n
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