"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall ! "

20 years ago today, Ronald Reagan, traveling on a visit to the then West Berlin, gave a speech pushing the Russians for change in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the original city gate and the symbol of Berlin.



Reagan on the dais is seen giving a the speech in front of the infamous "Berlin Wall" and one can see the empty streets of East Berlin behind them.

The Brandenburg Gate today....



I have been to the Brandenburg gate a few times. Once, a short while after the fall of the wall where there were still several sections left. I tore pieces off and have keep them. Near Brandenburg and the Reichstag, are memorials for those that died trying to escape East Germany, those that were shot and killed during their dash for freedom.



A sovereign nation that has to shoot their own citizens in the back for trying to escape to liberty shows the rot in these countries. And a country that is willing to brutally repress and kill their own citizens to keep them in line have no problem doing that to their neighbors and represent risks to everyone.

Ronald Reagan is largely credited with pushing the repressive Communist Russian empire over the edge and into oblivion...

Known as a staunch anti-communist long before he became president, Mr. Reagan had predicted in a 1982 speech to the British Parliament that Marxism was destined for "the ash heap of history," and in 1983 had denounced the Soviet Union as an "evil empire."

His 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate, invoking the name of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, was destined to become his most famous. A little more than two years later, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down -- not by Mr. Gorbachev, but by the German people -- dramatically symbolizing the collapse of communism.

Yet the speech's most famous phrase nearly didn't make it into the final draft.

Of course, provocative words make diplomats worry about consequences. But the core of the man drives the man, Ronald Reagan, to do the 'right thing'. The US has been and still is a beacon of light, freeing peoples so that they can decide their own future. Democracy and self determination is never and easy thing, but it is always a step in the right direction and all free peoples should remain vigilant against oppressive and potentially dangerous regimes such as Islamist Iran and the disastrous Zimbabwe. Granted, there have been mistakes in past foreign policy but no other country on earth has a dutifully pursued the liberty of peoples as the US.

The only thing that mystifies me, is how hostile Germans are to Americans after defending their world by standing toe-to-toe with the Russians for 40 years. They are just weird people.