TURNING POINTS
The Four Words Ronald Reagan’s Advisers Tried Seven Times to Delete
Before Reagan spoke at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, diplomats and national-security officials pressed him to remove his direct demand to Mikhail Gorbachev.
Ronald Reagan’s Berlin Wall speech is remembered for one blunt challenge. Less remembered is the argument inside his own administration over whether he should say it at all.
For weeks before Ronald Reagan traveled to West Berlin, officials in his administration tried to cut four words from his speech: “tear down this wall.”
Reagan kept them.
On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, he addressed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev directly: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” [2]
The line did not bring down the Berlin Wall, which stood for another 29 months. But it gave Reagan’s address a lasting place in Cold War memory by making the wall a direct test of Soviet reform.
A Speechwriter’s Trip to Berlin
White House speechwriter Peter Robinson went to West Berlin in April 1987 to prepare for Reagan’s visit. The city was a democratic enclave surrounded by East German territory, and the wall was part of daily life.
Robinson met with local residents, including Ingeborg Elz. Those conversations helped persuade him that Reagan should treat the wall as the central fact of his Berlin speech, not as a backdrop to a broader discussion of U.S.-Soviet relations. [1]
Reagan approved the challenge in an Oval Office meeting with his speechwriters on May 18. [1]
The speech would still address arms control and the possibility of improved relations with Moscow. Yet Reagan’s draft tied those questions to a visible condition in Berlin: if Soviet reforms were real, the wall was a place to demonstrate it.
The Fight Over One Sentence
The dispute inside the administration reflected a diplomatic calculation. Gorbachev had begun to speak of reform, while the United States and Soviet Union were engaged in arms-control talks. State Department and National Security Council officials feared that a public challenge to Gorbachev could antagonize Moscow and complicate negotiations.
Officials submitted at least seven alternative drafts that omitted the demand to tear down the wall. Secretary of State George Shultz, National Security Council officials, and other advisers pressed for different language; Colin Powell, then serving on the National Security Council, was among those who objected to the wording. [1][3][4]
Reagan made the final call. According to Robinson’s account, he told Deputy Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein that keeping the line was “the right thing to do.” [1]
At the Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate stood at the boundary between East and West Berlin, near the wall and its security system. On June 12, Reagan spoke from the West Berlin side behind protective glass before an audience of roughly 20,000. Loudspeakers carried the address toward the eastern side of the divided city. [1][2]
The famous sentence was part of a larger argument. Reagan called on Gorbachev to match his stated reforms with greater freedom and political change. The demand was brief, but it made the speech’s central challenge unmistakable. [2]
Moscow did not treat it as harmless rhetoric. The Soviet news agency TASS denounced Reagan’s address as provocative and warmongering. [4]
Why the Speech Took on New Meaning
The address was not immediately regarded as a decisive event. Contemporary attention focused heavily on arms control and the larger U.S.-Soviet relationship. Only after East German authorities opened border checkpoints on November 9, 1989, and Berliners began dismantling sections of the wall did Reagan’s words acquire their later symbolic force. [4]
One speech did not cause the wall’s collapse. The opening of the border came amid widespread protests and deep failures within East Germany’s communist regime. Reagan’s speech mattered in a different way: standing beside the wall, he rejected the idea that Berlin’s division should be accepted as permanent.
That is why the internal argument over four words remains part of the story. Reagan’s advisers saw a risk to delicate diplomacy. Reagan decided that the direct challenge belonged in the speech—and history attached it to the wall’s fall two years later. [1][5]
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote “tear down this wall” for Ronald Reagan?
White House speechwriter Peter Robinson drafted Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate address after visiting West Berlin in April 1987 and speaking with local residents. Reagan approved the challenge and chose to retain it despite internal objections. [1]
Why did officials want the phrase removed?
State Department and National Security Council officials worried that directly challenging Gorbachev would provoke Moscow and make arms-control diplomacy more difficult. They offered multiple alternatives that left out the line. [1][3]
How did the Soviet Union respond?
The Soviet news agency TASS condemned Reagan’s speech as provocative and warmongering, reflecting Moscow’s sensitivity to the public demand. [4]
TIMELINE
Key moments
Sources
- Tear Down This Wall — National Archives
- Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin — Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
- Reagan's 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall' was almost left unsaid — Stanford University
- Remembering Reagan's 'Tear Down This Wall' speech 25 years later — CBS News
- 20 Years After 'Tear Down This Wall' — TIME
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