In Ronald Reagan’s Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, he discussed the Berlin Wall and how it is a universal symbol (Kostka, 2009, p. 90). When President Reagan gave this remark, it was the 750th anniversary of the founding of Berlin (Kostka, 2009, p. 90). As President Reagan spoke to those in Berlin, he stated, “Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar” (American Rhetoric). President Reagan’s use of the metaphor ‘Every man is Berliner’ allowed him to explain how and why the Berlin Wall is a universal symbol that brings so many different countries together (American Rhetoric).
President Reagan appealed to those he was speaking to first so that they knew he was with them. President Reagan stated, “by the feeling of history in this city -- more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination” (American
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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?” (Coste, 2018, pp. 655-656). The autobiography is based “after one of his memorable lines in his most famous movie, Kings Row, where his character’s legs are amputated without his knowledge by a malicious doctor” (Coste, 2018, p. 656). President Reagan’s knowledge in writing helped him be able to use these forms of rhetoric in his Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987 (Kostka, 2009, p.