Tear down this wall

"Tear down this wall" is the famous challenge from a speech by Ronald Reagan, the 40th US president credited by his supporters with winning the Cold War.

In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate, right by the Berlin Wall, on June 12, 1987, he challenged the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to tear it down as a symbol of his desire for increasing freedom in the Soviet sphere. (Technically the wall was the responsibility of East Germany, not the Soviet Union). On November 9 1989 the East German government removed all restrictions on East Germans leaving the country, effectively marking the end of the wall.

External links

• Full text of the speech
• Media met its match - obituary crediting Reagan with getting rid of the Berlin Wall