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“Tear Down This Wall” (President Reagan)
The Brandenburg Gate was built in 1791. It stands as Berlin’s arch of triumph. From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin Wall blocked the Brandenburg Gate. The wall divided Germany into two zones of ideological contention and political distrust during a time known as the Cold War. President Reagan, the former President of the United States from 1981 to 1989, spoke in the Brandenburg Gate. President Reagan gave his famous “Tear Down this Wall” speech in Berlin. Many people in Germany were ready for freedom and others wanted it just the same. Many people felt there should be peace within the city. President Reagan wanted to persuade the Soviets and Communists that change and openness was a great thing. President
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Reagan’s speech was a challenge to Gorbachev, to tear down the wall as a symbol for increasing freedom. “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. “ (President Reagan) President Reagan’s speech tried to persuade German people to believe that the unification of Berlin was possible. With alternating American and German flags waving within the crowd, President Reagan begins this speech by recalling John F.
Kennedy's visit to Berlin in 1963. President Reagan aligning himself with JFK was very clever because most listening to the speech would recall JFK's visit and the satisfying feelings it brought when he declared, "Ich bin ein Berliner." JFK resonated with the German people and Reagan was attempting to do the same. Like Kennedy, Reagan also blends in German phrases in his speech and shows the people of Berlin that he does feel for them and he does respect their culture and language. Reagan goes on to talk about what the wall stands for all of Europe. He describes it using clear and simple language that is very common for him. He says, "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. “(President …show more content…
Reagan) Reagan very clearly states his position on the wall and communism in general, but he does not stop there. His ever present optimism comes through and he shifts his attention and begins to talk about Berlin in 1945, right after WWII. The city was destroyed, but the people continued to rebuild their lives, their homes and their country. With great respect, Reagan helps the German people recall this dark time in their history. He then begins to talk of West Germany today and says, "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.” (President Reagan). President Reagan desire and intention was giving the people hope. He was encouraging them to remember where they had come from and plan for a greater future. Reagan knew that hopeful, encouraged people are much more likely to demand change. If there is no hope, there is no need to demand change; but if there is hope, change is more likely to be demanded on the grounds that things can get better. Reagan continues and gets to the most memorable part of this speech and says, "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!” (President Reagan) He then invites Gorbachev into peace talks. The United States held a very strict policy that said the U.S. would not deal with communist rulers. This very often meant that talks of any kind never happened. It just didn't happen, at least for the public to see. Reagan's willingness to sit down and talk shows his pragmatism as a leader and he communicates this by winning over the hearts of the German people. Reagan's communication is powerful because he uses hope to inspire people, clear and simple language to help listeners understand, and pragmatic tactics to get what he wants. President Reagan used time, within his speech, to communicate his message through past, present and future references.
In addition, Reagan spends a good majority of his speech quoting pieces of history as a means of justifying and supporting his many claims. As an example, the president begins his speech with a piece of history, “In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation. And in 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan.” (President Reagan) He then proceeds to discuss the Marshall Plan and its success in creating a strong, free world in the West, which lead into the his discussion of present state of Berlin, “Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany. Where there was want, today there’s abundance.” (President Reagan) Then, Reagan discusses the future of Berlin and its ties to the rest of the world, “Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin. I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together. To open Berlin still further to all Europe. 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, on issues that call for
international cooperation.” (President Reagan) President Reagan’s speech was greatly successful, establishing his purpose and duty clearly. It was his duty as an American President, like past Presidents, to visit the oppressed in Germany in order to advertise and promote the message and means of freedom. He does so through the rhetorical and persuasive aspects of his speech. On the night of November 9, 1989 ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. This event would not have been possible without the committed and persuasive performance from President Reagan, a performance that deserves everyone appreciation.
Ronald Reagan adeptly utilizes Ethos Pathos and Logos in his Brandenburg Gate address, he attempts to sway the audience of the importance of success of the marshal plan and western values as a whole, and convince the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961. Reagan begins his speech by addressing the people present and recognizing the “freedom” and “feeling of history” of the city of Berlin has. He makes his first reference to previous speakers by saying, “Twenty four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, and 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,”( Reagan 361) His first usage of pathos is when he addresses the east berliners who were separated from the westerners by the Berlin wall and tells them, “I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this
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
Ronald Reagan was one of the most liked Presidents. When being elected for his second term, he won by a landslide—winning all the states minus Minnesota and Washington D.C. Reagan addresses the people of the United States of America. He wants the American people to reflect on his presidency, and as all presidents do in their farewell addresses, he wants to say goodbye to the nation that he's led for the past eight years. Ronald Reagan uses repetition, parallel structure, and allusion to reflect on his presidency and to say farewell to the American people.
Reagan rose into power after years of turmoil and the American pride was dipping. About a decade before he became president, the war in Viet-Nam was winding down and the troops were returning home to negative demonstrations towards their duty. Then, during the Carter years, America transitioned into a détente policy, which meant that the United States would try to ease the tensions with the Soviet Union by not expanding the military, but not doing anything to acting ease the tension. The idea behind this became known as MAD, mutually assured destruction, (Hannaford) which meant that both the United States and Soviet Union would maintain and even number of nuclear weapons so that if one would fire, the other would be able to fire back equally. Reagan completely disagreed with this philosophy and created a whole new policy when he became president. The foreign policy he established was to create the Reagan Doctrine. According to a speech by Peter Hannaford, the Reagan Doctrine was that America would support democratic movements in any Communist country until that country could enjoy the fruits of freedom (Hannaford). This meant that the United States would help any country who wanted to leave the influence of the Soviet Union and create their own democracy. Also, to counter the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, a race between the United State and Soviet Union to create the best technology and become the world powerhouse, Reagan increased military spending. Ronald Reagan knew that the Soviet Union was unable to keep up the United States in military spending and still having enough funds to fund their own economy to keep it stable. Reagan used this knowledge to convince Congress to increase military budget to build up technology, causing the Soviets decide on what to do. The United States had the funds to continue, but the Soviet Union could not keep up. The breaking point
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
In the year 1961, the building of Berlin Wall called upon disasters in Germany. United States controlled the west of Berlin while German Democratic Republic held the East. Being stuck under the rule of day to day terror, people from East Berlin were making their way to the West Berlin. West Berlin was a safe spot and freedom checkpoint in the middle of terror. To stop the moving of East Berliners, the East German government decided to build a barrier that limited and halted the East Berliners from leaving. 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
...speech to the world where he was quoted as saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The speech was given at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin (“Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall: President Ronald Reagan”). This speech signified the beginning of the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. President Reagan’s foreign policy tactics are another reason why he was a great president.
Throughout Reagan's speech, he used or rather talked about the issues that plague society today, such as combat, parenting, medicine/clinics and things of that nature. By him mentioning or hinting at these issues and using these relevant issues at hand it caused his audience to reflect on his speech as well as the so called prevalent "evil" that exists in today's world.
There is no doubt that the when the President of the United States speaks everyone listens to what he has to say. This credibility makes the Ethos of Reagan’s Speech almost unsurpassable. As mentioned Reagan was scheduled to give a State of the Union Address to our country on the evening of January 28, 1986. Instead, he postponed it, because “the story of the day was tragedy. Here he wanted to give an upbeat speech about America moving ahead. It just didn’t fit. It seemed in congruous (Weinraub).” He showed the country that his priority is the emotions of his people by, for the first time in history, postponing on the State of the Union speech in order to discuss the current event. This strengthened the creditability of his argument immensely. He likened the astronauts to pioneers and stated in his speech that “They had a special grace, that special spirit that says, ‘Give me a challenge and I’ll meet it with joy.” With this he appeals to the spiritual side of his audience using the word grace to describe the fallen. Again, “The president concluded by attaching the nation’s sorrow to God’s grace (Ritter, 4).” He said “As they prepared for there journey and waved ...
A couple of the heroic values that Reagan possessed were strength and courage. Most people would agree that it took an agglomeration of strength and courage during the cold war era to make his ever famous, “Tear Down This Wall Speech” in Berlin. Ramesh Jaura explains how many people believe this speech made a positive effect toward ending the cold war:
The audience he was trying to directly get to was the people he understood were listening to it in the East. He also states, “I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me.” To follow up with his statement of intended audience, Reagan says a powerful statement. A statement that is intended to the entirety of the audience. “For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin.” The final sentence meaning “There is only one Berlin.” This is yet another instance in this rhetorical masterpiece that Reagan clearly states his objective of the speech, to unify
Presidents like James Monroe, Harry S. Truman, and Richard Nixon etc. articulated their policies but amongst these executive doctrines, the doctrine of President Reagan is significant. The diplomatic doctrine of Reagan, known to all as the Reagan’s foreign policy intention was to eliminate the efforts of the Soviet Union to prolong its domination and from this time, he opted for the formulation of his doctrine to aid the rebels who in various countries of the world who were attempting to overthrown the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986). Relative to this point, it must be mentioned that in distinction to the earlier Cold War doctrine of “inclosing”, Reagan’s Doctrine projected “American moral and material backing for rebellious actions trying to oust Soviet-backed regimes in various Third World nations” (Carpenter, 1986). Additionally, it must be stated that the Reagan Doctrine came into being as the outcome of the thwarting of the U.S. administration over the Soviet progresses in Africa, Central America, and Central Asia.
The end of World War II was the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviet Union had control over East Berlin, which was governed by a communist government and the United States had control over West Berlin, which was regulated by a democratic government. Both countries wanted full control over Berlin, so the Soviet Union set up a blockade on the West but was unsuccessful. The Berlin Wall was then built to stabilize the economy of East Berlin, which meant that fewer people could escape the east to live in the west. In the article “The fall of the Berlin Wall: what it meant to be there,” by Timothy Garton Ash, he highlights the feelings of no longer having a “iron curtain” segregating both sides of Berlin.
The Berlin Wall, built in August of 1961, was s physical symbol of the political and emotional divisions of Germany. The Wall was built because of a long lasting suspicion between the Soviet Union on one side and Western Europe and the United States on the other. For 28 years the Berlin Wall separated friends, families, and a nation. After WWII was over Germany was divided into four parts. The United States, Great Britain, and France controlled the three divisions that were formed in the Western half and the Eastern half was controlled by the Soviet Republic. The Western sections eventually united to make a federal republic, while the Eastern half became communist.
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.