Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” Speech Explained | Primary Source Close Reads Explained

0:00 Hi. Welcome to Close Reads. On today’s episode, we’re going to examine Ronald Reagan’s June 12, 1987 speech: tear down this wall. And it’s one of the most confrontational and perhaps controversial speeches of the Cold War. And we’re going to ask three questions about it. One is,

0:20 what are Ronald Reagan’s criticisms of communism? Two, why does Reagan see the Berlin Wall as a symbol of oppression? And three what is Reagan’s objective in the Cold war with the Soviet Union? Well, let’s dive right in.

0:43 Before we examine excerpts from Reagan’s tear down this fall speech, why don’t we look at a little bit of historical background from the Cold War? I think it’s important to start maybe in the 1970s. The United States and Soviet Union are entering to a period of dayton, meaning decreasing tensions. One example of this is the SALT Treaty,

1:04 which reduces the number of certain nuclear weapons in each side’s arsenal. And I think it’s important to note that the United States seems to be in a period of relative decline as a world power. We just exited from Vietnam after losing that war.

1:25 We had the watergate scandal in 1974. We have the oil shocks in 1973, 1979, which sends the economy into recession, as well as a lot of inflation called stagflation. And in addition to that, American embassy workers were taken hostage in Iran in 1979 and held for more than 400 days.

1:49 So America seems less able to exercise its military economic money around the world. At the same time, the Soviet Union seems to be in the ascendant. Okay, they get a lot of oil, actually, from these oil shocks because they sold a lot of oil on the world market. And they use that money to both build up their nuclear and conventional forces.

2:16 But they also are exporting revolution and supporting revolutionaries around the world, in Latin America and Africa and Asia with arms in addition to that. Most infamously, they invade Afghanistan. And so the soviets seem to be able to project their power, their economic and military might around

2:40 the world at the same time that America seems to be on the decline. So, in other words, the soviets seem to be winning the Cold War and taking advantage of the ton. So Ronald Reagan is elected in 1980 in the United States, and he was a lifetime critic of communism. He was a very strong Cold Warrior during

3:03 the Cold War, had a lot of anti Communist rhetoric in his public speeches. And when he becomes president, he supports anticommunist movements in Poland with the Solidarity movement. He supports freedom fighters, if you will, in Afghanistan, and supports a number of Latin American governments and movements against

3:29 communism in Latin America, Africa, Asia, elsewhere around the globe. He also engages in a large military build up of both our nuclear and conventional forces, including the Strategic Defense Initiative, or sci, what critics labeled Star Wars from a movie at the time and it was a nuclear defense shield that was supposed

3:54 to protect the United States in case of a nuclear attack. And the idea was that if the soviets launched their nuclear weapons, the United States defense shield would shoot them out of the sky and would thereby protect the United States. The soviets were really worried about this because they feared that America would be able to launch a first strike if it knew

4:15 that it would be protected from a Soviet retaliatory strike. So that seemed to upset the Cold War and put America in a position of strength. The other thing is reagan constantly attacked communism. He called the soviets, most notably in 1983, an evil empire. He said that Communism was a system that was bound for

4:39 he said the ash heap of history. He said it was a threat to human freedom and human dignity. And he also specifically attacks the Berlin Wall, okay, which was built in 161 by Soviet leader Khrushchev. And he says it was a scar that was as ugly as the system that produced it.

5:03 He sees it as a symbol of oppression and an actual wall of oppression, keeping people in and not giving them human freedom and self government at the same time. I think we need to note that a new leader was ascendant in the Soviet Union, okay? His name was Mikhail Gorbachev. He came to power during Reagan’s second

5:25 term after 1984, and he’s trying to save the Soviet Union. It’s a system, despite its successes in the 1970s, it’s a system that seems to be on the decline. It’s technology and infrastructure. We’re really backwards. He’s also as willing as Reagan is to engage in some nuclear arms talks.

5:49 They realized that we had a lot of nuclear weapons in the world, and they wanted to help bring those stockpiles down. So that’s a little bit of historical background. So why don’t we actually look at the source now? So Reagan begins his speech at the Berlin Wall by criticizing the very wall that he’s standing before. And he says, behind me stands a wall

6:09 that encircles the free sectors of the city, part of a vast system of barriers that divide the entire continent of Europe. From the baltic south these 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,

6:34 still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. So Reagan is immediately launching into an attack on the wall as a symbol of oppression. Barbed wire, police, police dogs.

6:57 And they’re keeping people in. And the people behind that wall don’t have freedom. They don’t have freedom to move elsewhere. They don’t have the right of self-government. And he’s saying it’s not just the wall itself, right it is the wall in Berlin, but it’s also the divide within

7:18 Germany itself between East Germany and West Germany. It’s also that eastern part of Europe that the Soviet Union dominates and controls. 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.

7:43 He says, as long as this gate is closed, as long as the 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. So Reagan is engaging in an appeal, I think, to a bit of American exceptionalism that America stands for freedom.

8:06 You see this in Woodrow Wilson’s appeal to make the world safe for democracy in his war speech in 1917. You see it in the Truman Doctrine and Truman’s containment speech in 1947. This appeal to American ideals, that America stands

8:27 for freedom, democracy, capitalism, freedom around the world. Okay? And so he’s saying it’s not just a question for the Berliners, although it is it’s a question for all of mankind that the west broadly has a stake in helping these people govern themselves and helping these people

8:49 trapped under Soviet control and offering them freedom and self government. And he says, from devastation of World War II, from utter ruin, you Berliners have in freedom rebuilt the city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on Earth. The subia may have had other plans. Yeah, they wanted a blockade, West Berlin,

9:10 right after the war with the Berlin blockade. Yeah, they put up the Berlin Wall in 1961. They had other plans. They wanted a control. They wanted impose their totalitarian system. Reagan says the Berliners, at least in West Berlin, have stood for freedom. And Reagan continues here, comparing and contrasting the two sides.

9:35 The one free, democratic, capitalist, self governing human rights with, again, totalitarianism illiberal control, little freedom, few rights under this totalitarian system. And he says, in the west today, we see a free world that has achieved

9:56 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 of the most basic kind, right? Too little food. He says, even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself after these four decades.

10:19 Then there stands before the entire world, one in great inescapable conclusion. Freedom, he says, leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among nations with comedy and peace. Freedom is the victor. It will be the victor in the Cold War, he says. Freedom, that human spirit, that indomitable human spirit will

10:41 in the end win out, enjoy freedom, and be able to govern itself. He thinks the days of the Soviet Union and this wall are numbered. Reagan notes that the soviets might be reforming under Gorbachev a little bit. He says, now, the soviets themselves may in a limited way be coming to understand the importance of freedom, right?

11:03 They’re sort of coming to our side, Reagan is saying. We hear much from Moscow, from Gorbachev about a new policy of reform and openness, of glass, nostalgia. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been

11:24 permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. He’s acknowledging the Soviet Union does have some reforms. But he asked, are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state, or are they token gestures intended to arouse false hopes? Are they meant to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? Reagan thinks that that’s terrible.

11:44 He doesn’t want the Soviet system to last and endure. He wants it to go into the ash heap of history so that the pupil can have freedom and self government. He says, 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. So, again, there’s an acknowledgment of reform within the Soviet Union.

12:09 But Reagan wants to push that reform urge that that reform look more and more like the west and less and less like the Soviet Union, like Communism, like totalitarianism, like repression. And now for the exciting conclusion and for what is really, in many ways the most controversial part.

12:31 Now, Reagan has been pretty much attacking communism, the Berlin Wall, the Soviet system, throughout the speech. But here he directly confronts his adversary, if you will, Gorbachev, and the Soviet system, and says, tear down this wall. And he says, there is one sign the soviets can make that would be unmistakable,

12:55 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 in Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev. Open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

13:17 Tear down this what he called the gash. A scar. Tear down this symbol of oppression, right? Let these people be free. If you really believe in your reforms, if you really believe in human freedom and self government, tear down this wall. Let the people be free.

13:37 And he says on a very hopeful and optimistic note to finish, he says, yes. Across Europe, this wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith. It cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom, saying you can’t have a literal and symbolic oppression of the people, right?

13:59 They are yearning for freedom, right? They want to govern themselves. They don’t want to live under a police state. They don’t want to live under totalitarian control. They want freedom. So he’s basically calling out Gorbachev directly with a challenge, right? But not a Cold War challenge to destroy the world, but to open up the possibilities for human freedom.

14:24 So we come back to our central questions. One. What are Ronald Reagan’s criticisms of communism? Well, I think they should be pretty clear that he thinks that Communism is the oppressive and repressive system against human freedom, human dignity and self governance.

14:45 Two, why does Reagan see the Berlin walls as a symbol of oppression? Well, it feeds that oppression, right? It feeds that repression. It limits freedom. It’s a symbol of totalitarian control. And he calls out Gorbachev to tear it down. And third, what is Reagan’s objective in the Cold War with the soviets?

15:09 It’s simply to win, right? And not to win in order to crush your enemy, but to win, to advance, as I said, the cause of human freedom liberty, of democracy, of liberal capitalism, of self governance around the globe. Reagan wants people to around the world

15:30 to enjoy the same freedoms and rights that Americans enjoyed. Well, thank you for watching this examination of Ronald Reagan’s. Tear down this wall speech from 1987 and check out our other close reads of primary sources on YouTube, as well as our Cold War and the Presidency series on our channel as well.

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