Okla-homey
6/12/2008, 06:48 AM
June 12, 1987: Reagan challenges Gorbachev
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6757/rrreaganberlinwalliu0.jpg
21 years ago on this day in 1987, in one of his most famous speeches, President Ronald Reagan <peace be upon him> challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.
In 1945, following Germany's defeat in World War II, the nation's capital, Berlin, was divided into four sections, with the Americans, British and French controlling the western region and the Soviets gaining power in the eastern region.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6883/rrberlin1db6.gif
In May 1949, the three western sections came together as the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) being established in October of that same year. In 1952, the border between the two countries was closed and by the following year East Germans were prosecuted if they left their country without permission.
In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the East German government to prevent its citizens from escaping to the West. Between 1949 and the wall's inception, it's estimated that over 2.5 million East Germans fled to the West in search of a less repressive life.
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/4748/rrhistberlinwallnz1.jpg
With the wall as a backdrop, President Reagan declared to a West Berlin crowd in 1987,
"There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace."
He then called upon his Soviet counterpart:
"Secretary General 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."
Reagan then went on to ask Gorbachev to undertake serious arms reduction talks with the United States.
Most listeners at the time viewed Reagan's speech as a dramatic appeal to Gorbachev to renew negotiations on nuclear arms reductions. It was also a reminder that despite the Soviet leader's public statements about a new relationship with the West, the U.S. wanted to see action taken to lessen Cold War tensions.
Happily for Berliners, though, the speech also foreshadowed events to come: Two years later, on November 9, 1989, joyful East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990.
Gorbachev, who had been in office since 1985, stepped down from his post as Soviet leader in 1991. Reagan, who served two terms as president, from 1981 to 1989, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2306/rrreaganatdurenbergerraik3.jpg
Reagan is generally regarded, even by those who did not share his reasoned conservatism, to be one of the most effective presidents in our nation's history. Among political conservatives, he is the secular equivalent of a saint.
Under his leadership, the decades long Cold War ended, due in no small part to Reagan's style of speaking calmly and directly yet without vitriole while backing his words with the full power of a rejuvenated military establishment and an apparent will to use it.
He once said, evil cannot prevail against those who refuse to fear.
His quiet strength, sunny outlook and innate ability to read the pulse of the nation ended the long national political nightmare that began with the assasination of JFK, continued into the contentious Johnson administration, trudged forward into the intrigue and paranoid Nixon administration, and dipped to its lowest level under the well-intentioned but politically feckless Jimmy Carter.
Conservatives blanch and recoil in horror at the thought an inexperienced and previously largely unknown "change" merchant that sprang from the Chicago political machine might someday occupy the same office held by Ronald Wilson Reagan. If that happens, they should be comforted by the knowledge it was necessary for the nation to endure the pain of an earlier inexperienced seller of "change" in the form of a peanut farmer from Georgia to pave the way for Ronaldus Maximus.
Incidentally, Reagan had something to say the day prior on his arrival in Germany that your correspondent believes is equally as powerful as the "Tear Down This Wall" speech:
You know, there've been four wars in my lifetime. I don't want to see another. I'm going to tell you a story about one of those wars, only because it tells the difference between two societies, ours and that society the other side of the wall.
It goes back to a war when a B - 17 bomber was flying back across the channel badly shot up by anti-aircraft fire. The ball turret that hung beneath the belly of the plane had taken a hit, was jammed. They couldn't get the ball turret gunner out while they were flying, and he was wounded. And out over the channel the plane started to lose altitude.
The skipper ordered bail-out, and as the men started to leave the plane, the boy in the ball turret knew he was being left to go down with the plane. The last man to leave the plane saw the captain sit down on the floor and take his hand, and he said, ``Never mind son, we'll ride it down together.'' The Congressional Medal of Honor , posthumously awarded. That citation that I read when I was serving in that same war stuck with me for many years and came back to me just a few years ago when the Soviet Union gave its highest honor, a gold medal, to a man, a Spaniard living in Moscow.
But they don't give citations. They don't tell you why; they just give the medal. So, I did some digging to find out why he was their highest honoree. Well, he had spent 8 years in Cuba before going to Moscow. And before that he had spent 23 years in Mexico in prison. He was the man who buried a pickaxe in the head of -- Leon Trotsky's head. They gave their highest honor for murder. We gave our highest honor to a man who had sacrificed his life to comfort a boy who had to die.
I don't know of anything that explains the difference between the society we're trying to preserve and the society we're defending the world against than that particular story.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4821/rrreaganronaldphoto4lrgdi9.gif
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6757/rrreaganberlinwalliu0.jpg
21 years ago on this day in 1987, in one of his most famous speeches, President Ronald Reagan <peace be upon him> challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.
In 1945, following Germany's defeat in World War II, the nation's capital, Berlin, was divided into four sections, with the Americans, British and French controlling the western region and the Soviets gaining power in the eastern region.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6883/rrberlin1db6.gif
In May 1949, the three western sections came together as the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) being established in October of that same year. In 1952, the border between the two countries was closed and by the following year East Germans were prosecuted if they left their country without permission.
In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected by the East German government to prevent its citizens from escaping to the West. Between 1949 and the wall's inception, it's estimated that over 2.5 million East Germans fled to the West in search of a less repressive life.
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/4748/rrhistberlinwallnz1.jpg
With the wall as a backdrop, President Reagan declared to a West Berlin crowd in 1987,
"There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace."
He then called upon his Soviet counterpart:
"Secretary General 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."
Reagan then went on to ask Gorbachev to undertake serious arms reduction talks with the United States.
Most listeners at the time viewed Reagan's speech as a dramatic appeal to Gorbachev to renew negotiations on nuclear arms reductions. It was also a reminder that despite the Soviet leader's public statements about a new relationship with the West, the U.S. wanted to see action taken to lessen Cold War tensions.
Happily for Berliners, though, the speech also foreshadowed events to come: Two years later, on November 9, 1989, joyful East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990.
Gorbachev, who had been in office since 1985, stepped down from his post as Soviet leader in 1991. Reagan, who served two terms as president, from 1981 to 1989, died on June 5, 2004, at age 93.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2306/rrreaganatdurenbergerraik3.jpg
Reagan is generally regarded, even by those who did not share his reasoned conservatism, to be one of the most effective presidents in our nation's history. Among political conservatives, he is the secular equivalent of a saint.
Under his leadership, the decades long Cold War ended, due in no small part to Reagan's style of speaking calmly and directly yet without vitriole while backing his words with the full power of a rejuvenated military establishment and an apparent will to use it.
He once said, evil cannot prevail against those who refuse to fear.
His quiet strength, sunny outlook and innate ability to read the pulse of the nation ended the long national political nightmare that began with the assasination of JFK, continued into the contentious Johnson administration, trudged forward into the intrigue and paranoid Nixon administration, and dipped to its lowest level under the well-intentioned but politically feckless Jimmy Carter.
Conservatives blanch and recoil in horror at the thought an inexperienced and previously largely unknown "change" merchant that sprang from the Chicago political machine might someday occupy the same office held by Ronald Wilson Reagan. If that happens, they should be comforted by the knowledge it was necessary for the nation to endure the pain of an earlier inexperienced seller of "change" in the form of a peanut farmer from Georgia to pave the way for Ronaldus Maximus.
Incidentally, Reagan had something to say the day prior on his arrival in Germany that your correspondent believes is equally as powerful as the "Tear Down This Wall" speech:
You know, there've been four wars in my lifetime. I don't want to see another. I'm going to tell you a story about one of those wars, only because it tells the difference between two societies, ours and that society the other side of the wall.
It goes back to a war when a B - 17 bomber was flying back across the channel badly shot up by anti-aircraft fire. The ball turret that hung beneath the belly of the plane had taken a hit, was jammed. They couldn't get the ball turret gunner out while they were flying, and he was wounded. And out over the channel the plane started to lose altitude.
The skipper ordered bail-out, and as the men started to leave the plane, the boy in the ball turret knew he was being left to go down with the plane. The last man to leave the plane saw the captain sit down on the floor and take his hand, and he said, ``Never mind son, we'll ride it down together.'' The Congressional Medal of Honor , posthumously awarded. That citation that I read when I was serving in that same war stuck with me for many years and came back to me just a few years ago when the Soviet Union gave its highest honor, a gold medal, to a man, a Spaniard living in Moscow.
But they don't give citations. They don't tell you why; they just give the medal. So, I did some digging to find out why he was their highest honoree. Well, he had spent 8 years in Cuba before going to Moscow. And before that he had spent 23 years in Mexico in prison. He was the man who buried a pickaxe in the head of -- Leon Trotsky's head. They gave their highest honor for murder. We gave our highest honor to a man who had sacrificed his life to comfort a boy who had to die.
I don't know of anything that explains the difference between the society we're trying to preserve and the society we're defending the world against than that particular story.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4821/rrreaganronaldphoto4lrgdi9.gif