President Ronald Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin is perhaps one of his greatest moments as President. The Brandenburg Gate was the center of the Berlin Wall and prior to its closing in 1961, served as the link between East and West Berlin. The speech was given on June 12th, 1987, and the Berlin Wall fell about two years later, on November 9th, 1989.1 Reagan's speech highlighted reasons why Germany should be unified and why the USSR and communism would eventually fail. Analyzing the speech as a primary source provides a first-hand account of the Western, capitalist point-of-view on issues during the Cold War.
President Reagan begins his speech by mentioning other President's visits to Berlin, and in particular, President John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit in which he
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The Marshall Plan was established just a few years after the conclusion of World War II. The Plan aimed to prevent the spread of communism in unstable European nations by providing military and financial aid.3 Reagan uses the Marshall Plan as an example of capitalism working and being key to building a functioning, flourishing society. He says of a mural in the Reichstag:
I was struck by the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt. I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world." A strong, free world in the West, that dream became real. Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth; the European Community was founded.4
Reagan names nations, in addition to West Germany and Berlin, that had been devastated by World War II and were able to rebuild and prosper thanks to the Marshall Plan and a strong capitalist