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Berlin Wall Essay

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Freedom is defined as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” However, prior to 1989, citizens of Berlin, Germany were somewhat unaware of this concept that seems so commonplace to Americans. The Berlin wall was built through the middle of the German capital, separating east and west Europe. The eastern half was ridden with economic restraint, poverty, and communism, while the western half was quite acquainted with freedom and the pleasures of the western world. Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States from 1981-1989, spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 1987, urging the government to tear down the dividing wall and expose both halves to personal and economic freedom. Reagan uses …show more content…

Reagan delivers the fact that something deeply rooted in the citizens of Berlin keeps them there, stating, “‘Something… that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin — is love’” (Reagan 37). This quote shows that love for each other, love for the city, and love for freedom keep the citizens in Berlin through all of its misgivings and obstacles that stand against freedom. Thus, this concept contrasts all of the beliefs of the Communists, considering that “[t]he totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront” (Reagan 37). What Reagan, the western world, Americans, and even love itself directly contradict this affirmation of restraint. In the same regard, Reagan gives an example of this contrast in action. He relays the fact that a television tower was built after the erection of the Berlin wall, but the tower, in the eyes of the communist side, had “one major flaw: treating the glass sphere

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Furthermore, Ronald Reagan started his argument with uses of word choices and appeals of emotions which creates strong feelings that effectively helps him to persuade the Soviet Union as well as the president Gorbachev. As he mentioned in paragraph two “standing before the Brandenburg gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow man, every man is a Berliner forced to look upon a scar” here Reagan expressed the feeling of not being able to be connected to the other part of German. Those emotional appeal makes the Soviet Union to think about how the people were not connected to the other side of the berlin wall, which creates an eagerness inside them to bring down the

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528 Words | 3 Pages

I Believe that Ronald Reagan was addressing this speech to the Soviet Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Improve the economy and make the Citizens be able to see their family. I think he was challenging the audience to believe that the Tearing down of the wall was going to happen. A Journalist once said that “Visiting East Berlin gives the impression of visiting a prison camp, The people do not seem to feel free. (libertarianism.org).

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Michael Andersen Mr. Bolton Public Speaking CIHS 4 April, 2023 Great Speech Analysis: Tear Down This Wall, Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan, in his persuasive speech, “Tear Down This Wall” (1987) challenges Soviet authority to tear down the Berlin Wall and allow West and East Germany to reunite. Reagan supports his statement by using apostrophe, anadiplosis and anaphora. Reagan's purpose was to prod communist authority in East Germany. Reagan addresses those who were watching television in Europe, North America and especially those that attended his speech live at the Berlin Wall. Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911.

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895 Words | 4 Pages

Knowing President Reagan’s past is something that is not spoken and written of enough. In the Writing the Life of Ronald Reagan: An Impossible Mission? it helps to bring light to his past and why he was able to use these forms of rhetoric to speak to the harsh realities of the Berlin Wall and its impact on many people around the world. It is important to note that President Reagan “published two (ghostwritten) autobiographies. The first one was published in 1965, just before he entered politics in California; it is entitled Where’s the Rest of Me?”

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844 Words | 4 Pages

In 1987 he forged a diplomatic relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev chairman of the Soviet Union. That same year the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a historic agreement to eliminate intermediate range nuclear missiles. Later that year Reagan spoke at the Berlin wall a symbol of communism and challenged Gorbachev to tear down the wall “ Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall”. 2 years later he allowed the people to dismantle the wall. This is considered a symbol of the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of communism.

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

Reagan, based on an appeal to the general public, chooses to gain credibility and an emotional appeal with religion by using associating his ideas with words like god and morality then repeats this association with all his ideas. His repetition and word choice creates an association of his ideas and religion, in a public of very religious citizens, will create a positive connotation regardless of the actual merit of the idea. This connotation will help make the general public more receptive and accepting of Reagan’s decision making based, as well as have a generally more negative connotation when thinking of the Soviet Union. Having the public’s support can reduce scrutiny of his decision making and minimize public backlash regardless of the merit of his

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Freedom can be defined in many different ways, the dictionary definition, meaning the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint may be how you see freedom. One thing most of the people in the world would agree on is that freedom throughout the world. Both Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech and Kennedy’s inaugural address discuss upholding freedom in the world. However, Roosevelt’s speech talks about supporting war in the efforts to maintain peace, whereas Kennedy’s speech talks about using more peaceful means like negotiating and coming to an agreement. Roosevelt gave his “Four Freedoms” speech in 1941.

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This boundary was built in 1961 and fell in 1990, after a decree was put into place by the East Germans to open the wall in 1989. Ronald Reagan’s speech “Tear Down this Wall” was one of the events that lead to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War era. This speech took place on the edge of the berlin Wall on the seven hundred fiftieth anniversary of Berlin and was directed towards anyone who was listening and affected by the separation the wall caused. The speech given by Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1987 is memorable because of the use of logos and pathos throughout the entire speech. Ronald Reagan began this famous speech by welcoming each and every person who was watching it either on television or in the crowd.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. " Reagan makes an argument more understandable and fair by mentioning the other viewpoints that some of the major leaders of Berlin

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459 Words | 2 Pages

In her eulogy to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, presents Reagan as a hardworking, agreeable, and funny man. She describes him as a common man who worked just as hard, or harder, than anyone. The purpose of her eulogy is to mention the great deeds of Reagan as well as describe his personal characteristics and show why these characteristics made him such a legendary president. One of the main ways Thatcher exposes the characteristics of Reagan is with parallelisms and repetition that put hard emphasis on her other points.

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

for work rates, are very similar and very close to industrialized nations like Canada, Japan, and the United States, which is a very big positive effect for every east berliner. (Mauk) The Berlin Wall coming down 25 years back not simply joined Germany and expected the coming breakdown of the Soviet Union; (Tony Karon) it created a noteworthy change in overall issues. Even though the Cold War that happened after World War II made a very bipolar world, due to relations between the parallel conflict of a U.S.- drove West versus a Soviet-instructed East, in the end, there was more peace than the beginning. The detached of the West from the East Berlin symbolizes the end of the Cold War

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891 Words | 4 Pages

With the constant threat of nuclear war overshadowing everyday life, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 not only divided Germany, but manifested as a physical division between “the free world” and “the Communist world”, as termed by President John F. Kennedy. Two years later, he delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Through heavy emotional appeal and an encouraging tone, Kennedy not only offers American solidarity to West Berlin, but instills confidence in the crusade for democracy across the globe. Speaking to an audience of Germans, the American president’s first priority is building sympathy with his foreign audience. This is best seen through his diction as he begins by directly addressing

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969 Words | 4 Pages

This became one of the first of many international crisis of the Cold War, in which America responded well, not destroying the blockade or attacking the Soviets, but by delivering supplies through an alternate route until the USSR had no choice but to acknowledge their actions were futile and remove the blockade. Just before the Berlin Blockade and right before Harry Truman became president he said, “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisted subjugation by armed or outside pressures.” (A) This concept surely followed him into the incident involving West Berlin and he stayed true to his ideas in helping the citizens living there obtain resources, despite the Soviets

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409 Words | 2 Pages

The rhetorical elements, logos and pathos, included in Ronald Reagan’s speech, “ Tear Down This Wall” assist Reagan and his words to convince Gorbachev, along with the people of Berlin, that the wall between eastern and western Berlin must be dismantled. Logos is an appeal to logic, or a way of persuading an audience by reason. Reagan provides details of how other countries have reached a state of freedom, at the same time have maintained a strong financial background. In “Tear Down This Wall” logos is used to show that countries who are not separated by a wall are thriving economically. For example, Reagan explained, “in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history.”

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752 Words | 4 Pages

A Big Box of Crayons “We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box” (Fulgham, Robert). In the same way, each individual is a unique crayon, and we all live together in one big box, the world. Rituals of Memory, by Kimberly Blaeser, also uses symbolism to describes relationships like a loop that always returns. Similarly, Alberto Rios, in The Vietnam Wall, brings us on his journey while viewing the Vietnam Wall, which serves as a symbol of America’s honor and those who died or remain missing from the Vietnam War.

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