June 12th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Reagan challenges Gorbachev 1987

 

On this day in 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan 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. 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.

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.

(More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1776 Virginia adopts George Mason’s Declaration of Rights

• Automotive

• 1940 Edsel Ford agrees to manufacture Rolls-Royce engines for war effort

• Civil War

• 1862 J.E.B. Stuart rides around the Union army
• 1864 Grant pulls out of Cold Harbor

• Cold War

• 1987 Reagan challenges Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall

• Crime

• 1994 Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murdered

• Disaster

• 1897 Deadly quake hits India

• General Interest

• 1898 Philippine independence declared
• 1963 Medgar Evers assassinated
• 1975 Indira Gandhi convicted of election fraud

• Hollywood

• 2003 Gregory Peck dies

• Literary

• 1942 Anne Frank receives a diary

• Music

• 1971 Honey Cone earns a #1 hit with “Want Ads”

• Old West

• 1876 Journalist headed for Little Big Horn files dispatch

• Presidential

• 1924 George Herbert Walker Bush is born
• 1944 John F. Kennedy receives medals

• Sports

• 1920 Big Red sets record at Belmont Stakes

• Vietnam War

• 1965 South Vietnamese premier resigns
• 1972 Lavelle testifies before Congress

• World War I

• 1917 King Constantine of Greece abdicates

• World War II

• 1940 Paris on the verge of invasion