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Ronald reagan inaugural speech
Ronald reagan inaugural speech
Berlin Wall analysis
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“Every man is a German separated from his fellow men” (AmericanRhetoric.com, 2). During the Cold War, which lasted from 1947 to 1991, Germany had split into two, allies on the west side of the wall and Soviets on the east side of the wall. (History,1) Not only were their families that had been separated but a whole country. On June 12, 1987 Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at the Brandenburg Gate that had brought some relief to the people of Berlin, on both the east and west side of the wall. In his speech he states “There is only one Berlin” (AmericanRhetoric.com, 1). This quote means that even though Berlin has been split in half, there is going to be some form of relief soon and that no matter what is thrown at the people of Germany, they …show more content…
will stay strong and push through it. Ronald Reagan’s speech given to the people of Berlin not only let his personal conjecture be heard, but also spoke for the people of Berlin. He was intrepid and did something that no other American President has done before. One of Ronald Reagan’s famous lines from his speech was “Mr.
Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev -- Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (AmericanRhetoric.com, 3). Reagan was taking on a big speculation by saying this line during his speech. This sentence could have caused a major turmoil with the Soviets. “And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together, so that all of the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the World.” (AmericanRhetoric.com, 5). As a result of the Soviets ruling Germany, Berlin was split into two cities. Families were forced to be separated and many were angered since the wall was put up. Reagan gave the people of Berlin buoyancy that there city one day will no longer be separated by a wall. “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.” (AmericanRhetoric.com, 5). No matter what challenges were brought upon the people of Berlin, they stuck together and pushed through them. They haven’t let one problem defy them as a city. They still put forth maximum effort to stay strong and to survive with what they
had. There were challenges that came with living in Europe during the mid nineteen hundreds. Many lost their lives during the world wars or had to live with the result of the wars. Which ended in starvation or living with the bare minimum to survive. As time went on, these conditions had gotten better, but Germany will always live with the challenges of the past in mind. Ronald Reagan’s speech delivered to the people of Berlin not only let his personal conjecture be heard, but he also spoke for the people of Berlin. He was intrepid and did something that no other American President has done before. Without his speech the people of Berlin would not have had their voice heard. The marks of the Berlin wall will forever be a scar left on the people and the city of Berlin.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Reagan 361) This line, while so simple, is probably the most famous from the whole speech and arguably one of Ronald Reagan 's most famous and recognizable lines ever. It sends a glaringly strong message that the United States and entire free world wants to bring Germany together not just for its own personal interests but because it genuinely cares about the state of the country. This short concise statement also shows that the president means business and that he is willing to do anything in his power to help the German people should Gorbachev accept his offer. He goes on to state that the United States is striving for peace and although it can not permit the spreading of communism, it does seek for all the people to see an increase in the standard of living and assure both sides security by demilitarizing and disarming both sides wherever
He describes the physical wall in Berlin and the wall of restrictions that divides the rest of the country as a scar, insinuating that it is ugly, unnatural, and undesirable. In the third paragraph, he creates a connection between the people of the east and west by describing them as, “fellow countrymen,” and then by saying, “Es gibt nu rein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.]” This connection poses an enthymeme that the people on both sides of the wall have common goals: freedom, security, and prosperity. Reagan then links these goals to the rest of the world by saying, “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.” Until this point, Reagan’s audience appears to be limited to Germans. By unifying these groups, he compels the world to empathize with their German brethren. The pain and suffering felt by the German people becomes that of mankind, encouraging the rest of the world to understand wanting the wall to fall on a personal level. This is further exemplified in the next paragraph when Reagan declares, “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
Kennedy, “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” (Reagan par. 15). He relates this image to inspire people in a difficult time, because in the same way that John F. Kennedy spoke to the people of Berlin during rough times and delivered a message of hope and freedom that was expressed through a vision of seeing Germany and all of Europe united, “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe” (Kennedy par. 8). Reagan hoped to relay the same message during tough times as well and with the hopes that his words would be received with the same openness and eagerness the German people exhibited when Kennedy visited in
But the battle to control Berlin between, the United States and the Soviet Union, had been taking place since after the division of Germany. The German Democratic Republic wanted better control over its people to spread its communist ideas and tried taking its way around to get control of East Berlin by building the Berlin Wall. The creation of this “concentration camp” on a much larger scale, gave the GDR total control over the people. The reasoning that the German Democratic Republic provided for the creation of this gigantic wall was that many of its skilled labor were leaving to the “free land” or the West, causing an economic downfall in the East.
For instance, in his speech “Tear Down This Wall” Reagan addresses the need for the people of West Berlin to accept democracy and oppose the Berlin Wall, which planned to separate East and West Berlin as a symbol of communist oppression.
Berlin and West Berlin but was located deep inside the Soviet controlled zone. Then, in 1961, the Soviet government built a wall which separated the two halves of the city. It was not until the 1980s that cold war tensions eased. through the glasnost (openness to public debate) policies of soviet leaders. Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1987, the President of the United States at the time was Ronald Reagan. Everyone has their differing opinions when it comes to judging the quality of the job a President has done. There are many factors that cause biased opinions. Some of these include your political party affiliation, your viewpoint on the social matters that were going on at the time, and your economic standing. Despite all these varying viewpoints, people can agree upon one thing when it comes to Ronald Reagan. That one thing is that in 1987, when turmoil due to post-war political issues split Germany into two sides, Reagan made a speech that is known as “The Speech at Brandenburg Gate” that altered the course of history. His exalted rhetoric was highly touted at the
Imagine your home town surrounded by a twelve foot concrete wall along with guard towers. This is the situation that East Berlin found itself facing began in August of 1961. (History Channel, n.d.) It was Ronald Reagan's long-term vision and ethical leadership that led the United States of America to prevail over the former Soviet Union. His vision was a world free from the Berlin wall and freedom for those that lived behind it. His ethics and values were based on his belief that "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction" (Reagan, 1984). What was President Reagan's vision?
In May 15, 1967, Reagan give forceful, public call to knock down the Berlin Wall, but this was one of many such proclamations during that first quest for the presidency. On May 21, 1968, in Florida, and again the next month in Wyoming, Reagan stated that instead of America unilaterally giving wheat to the Soviets, the Soviets should make a major concession: America should tell the Soviets, “We could deliver it better if the Berlin Wall wasn’t there!”
At first, the divisions between East and West Berlin were uncertain. There was nothing that divided the city. For more than ten years after the official split of the city, East Berlin saw a major emigration of East Germans, unhappy with the communist system. With nothing physical to separate East and West Berlin, migration from totalitarianism to democracy was as easy for East Berliners as changing houses. The Soviet Union went against their promises to the people of East Germany, and made East Germany a Communist country. This decision by the Soviet Union separated East Germany even more from the rest of Europe. East Germany was now all by itself, and by the summer of 1952 th...
Though times were tough for many years for some Germans, things are improving slowly. While the wall was erect, many Germans had high hopes of change and continue to strive towards equality nationwide. In June of 1963 when John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, he gave a very impacting speech to the people of Berlin, "There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin" (Sidey). Although the wall no longer physically stands, it still today divides Germany and Berlin into two separate states today.
At the same time, it is necessary to clearly realize that the fall of the Berlin Wall was the result of the victory of democratic forces in the Cold War. It is evident that the totalitarian regime controlling the GDR and Eastern Europe was about to ruin and the changes started in many socialist countries, including the USSR and naturally the GDR could not fail to lead to democratization of the country. At the same time, any democratic changes in Eastern Germany were impossible until the symbol of totalitarian regime existed, i.e. the Berlin Wall. At the same time, it is necessary to underline that there was another strong desire to unite Germany and German people. Actually, since 1989, before the Wall was physically ruined, German people had got an opportunity to move freely without any restrictions regardless the Wall but people could hardly forget thousands of Germans died and imprisoned, while attempting to trespass the
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 precipitated the Reunification of Germany in 1990. Negotiations and talks between East German’s Lothar de Maiziere and West German’s Helmut Kohl and the four occupying powers of United States, United Kingdom, France, and Soviet Union resulted in the Unification Treaty or the “Two plus Four Treaty” recognizing the sovereignty of the newly unified German state. The five states of German Democratic Republic or East Germany united with Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany and Berlin became a unified city on October 3, 1990 marking the die wende or Turning Point. “By early 1991, however, not much more than a year after the barricade surrounding the Brandenburg Gate was actually removed, most Germans, East and West, were asking themselves whether the Wall’s absence was, by itself sufficient to bring the nation together again” (McAdams 199).” Zealous attempts to restructure East Germany’s economy after reunification in 1990 led to massive debt and high taxation, sparking disillusionment and frustration among German citizens, which resulted in a divided and unequal economy.
As their relationship continued to grow, Reagan asked Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Though Gorbachev did not want to do this at first, after almost two and a half years, he destroyed the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was a communist sign which is why Reagan felt the need to ask that it be destroyed. When the process of destroying the Berlin Wall began, Reagan’s time in the Whitehouse was over. The destruction of the Berlin Wall was a milestone for Reagan, and so once he had left office, he took a trip to Berlin to take on the honor of destroying the wall. Reagan successfully reached his goal and got Gorbachev to destroy this symbol of communism.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall changed Western Europe as we know it today. The Iron Curtain which had split Europe had ascended and the once divided germans were reunited under one common nation. The causal factors which resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall were internal — communism imploded upon itself—. Gorbachev attempted to reform communism through Glasnost and Perestroika, which were supposed to incorporate economic reforms and transparency, however, history illustrates that increased liberty is incompatible with communism. Dr. Schmidtke argued that structural deficiencies led along with poor economic growth which led to the collapse of communism in Europe, and consequently the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The alienation of intellectuals and the authoritative nature of communist regimes further contributed to the failure of communism in Europe. However, the collapse of the Berlin Wall would not have occurred had it not been for Gorbachev’s Glasnost, Perestroika, and the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Along with German official Schabowski whose actions were the catalyst for the mass exodus of persons from the GDR into West Germany. The Collapse of the Berlin Wall would not have occurred so swiftly had Gorbachev not tried to implement reforms to communism.