“Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (par. 14) resonated from President Ronald Reagan to the people of West Berlin, of East Berlin, and of the world. Reagan’s speech, delivered on June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, became one of the capstone events in the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. The end of this decade signaled the collapse of the Berlin Wall, but it was at this defining moment in 1987 that the United States once more urged the people of Berlin and of all Eastern nations to assess their lives and rally for freedom.
