Ronald Reagan's Speech
Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen:
Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to
the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two
other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself,
make my second visit to your city.
We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it's our duty to speak,
in this place, of freedom. But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things
as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than
our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all,
by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood
something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before
me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen
Koffer in Berlin. [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]
Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North
America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To
those listening throughout Eastern Europe, a special word: Although I cannot be
with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here
before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in
this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin. [There is only one
Berlin.]
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. From
the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire,
concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible,
no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the
same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose
upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in
Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city,
where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal
division of a continent upon the mind of the world. 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.
President von Weizsacker has said, "The German question is open as long as
the Brandenburg Gate is closed." Today I say: As long as the 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.
Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even
in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.
In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their
air-raid shelters to find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the people of
the United States reached out to help. And in 1947 Secretary of State--as
you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of what would become
known as the Marshall Plan. Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he
said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against
hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."
In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this
40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. I was struck by the sign on a burnt-out,
gutted structure that was being rebuilt. I understand that Berliners of my own
generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western
sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The Marshall Plan is helping here
to strengthen the free world." A strong, free world in the West, that dream
became real. Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France,
Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic
rebirth; the European Community was founded.
In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle,
the Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood
the practical importance of liberty--that just as truth can flourish only when
the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only
when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders
reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone,
the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.
Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the
greatest industrial output of any city in Germany--busy office blocks, fine
homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland. Where
a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great
universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where
there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles--the
wonderful goods of the Ku'damm. From devastation, from utter ruin, you
Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the
greatest on earth. The Soviets may have had other plans. But my friends, there
were a few things the Soviets didn't count on--Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor,
ja, und Berliner Schnauze. [Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner
Schnauze.]
In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West
today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and
well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see
failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want
of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still
cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the
entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity.
Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace.
Freedom is the victor.
And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to
understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new
policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released.
Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic
enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state
control.
Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are
they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to
strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and
openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the
advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is
one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance
dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.
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!
I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this
continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these
burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must
maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must
strive to reduce arms on both sides.
Beginning 10 years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a
grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles,
capable of striking every capital in Europe. The Western alliance responded by
committing itself to a counter-deployment unless the Soviets agreed to
negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on both
sides. For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. As the
alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there
were difficult days--days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this
city--and the Soviets later walked away from the table.
But through it all, the alliance held firm. And I invite those who
protested then-- I invite those who protest today--to mark this fact: Because
we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table. And because we remained
strong, today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the
growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of
nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.
As I speak, NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland to review the progress
of our proposals for eliminating these weapons. At the talks in Geneva, we have
also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons. And the Western allies
have likewise made far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of conventional
war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.
While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will
maintain the capacity to deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might
occur. And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is
pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative--research to base deterrence not on
the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that truly defend; on
systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them. By these
means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and all the world. But we must
remember a crucial fact: East and West do not mistrust each other because we
are armed; we are armed because we mistrust each other. And our differences are
not about weapons but about liberty. When President Kennedy spoke at the City
Hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled, Berlin was under siege. And
today, despite all the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its
liberty. And freedom itself is transforming the globe.
In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given
a rebirth. Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after
miracle of economic growth. In the industrialized nations, a technological
revolution is taking place--a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in
computers and telecommunications.
In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the
community of freedom. Yet in this age of redoubled economic growth, of
information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It must make
fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete.
Today thus represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to
cooperate with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that
separate people, to create a safe, freer world. And surely there is no better
place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start. Free
people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States stands for the
strict observance and full implementation of all parts of the Four Power
Agreement of 1971. Let us use this occasion, the 750th anniversary of this
city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for the Berlin
of the future. Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the
Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the
1971 agreement.
And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western
parts of the city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin
can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the
world.
To open Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand
the vital air access to this city, finding ways of making commercial air
service to Berlin more convenient, more comfortable, and more economical. We
look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in
all central Europe.
With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared to
help bring international meetings to Berlin. It would be only fitting for
Berlin to serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on
human rights and arms control or other issues that call for international
cooperation.
There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten
young minds, and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges,
cultural events, and other programs for young Berliners from the East. Our
French and British friends, I'm certain, will do the same. And it's my hope
that an authority can be found in East Berlin to sponsor visits from young
people of the Western sectors.
One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of
enjoyment and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of
Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics
to take place in the North. International sports competitions of all kinds
could take place in both parts of this city. And what better way to demonstrate
to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year to
hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West? In these four decades, as
I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You've done so in spite of
threats--the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the
city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this
wall. What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your
fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there's something deeper,
something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of life--not mere
sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused
of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in
Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud
city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release
human energies or aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of
affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In
a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love--love both
profound and abiding.
Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental
distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces
backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human
impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even
symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans
began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the
television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have
been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw, treating
the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even
today when the sun strikes that sphere--that sphere that towers over all
Berlin--the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city
itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.
As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German
unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young
Berliner: "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across Europe,
this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth.
The wall cannot withstand freedom.
And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have
been questioned since I've been here about certain demonstrations against my
coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate
so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the
kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what
they're doing again.
Thank you and God bless you all.