Reagan dared Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall'
On this day · 12 June 1987
At the Brandenburg Gate, with the Berlin Wall behind him, the U.S. president issued a challenge that outlived the Cold War.
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood at West Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall rising just behind him, and delivered the line that would define the speech: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
The challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was politically risky. Several of Reagan’s own senior advisers had urged him to cut the phrase, worried it might inflame East–West tensions or embarrass Gorbachev. Reagan kept it anyway, reportedly saying, “I think we’ll leave it in.”
The wall had divided the city since 1961; few in the crowd imagined it had only two years left to stand.
At the time, the speech drew a muted response and was not seen as a landmark. Its reputation soared only after the wall fell in November 1989, recasting Reagan’s demand as one of the most memorable moments of late-Cold-War oratory.
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