President Ronald Reagan Clip: "Tear Down This Wall"

Listen to the crowd's response, because no one imagined an American President having the courage to say this. And two years later, the Wall came down. This is what greatness looks like.

The one liner that changed history.

This still brings tears to my eyes.

"Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR, DOWN, THIS WALL" I get goosebumps and tears in my eyes, every single time I hear this historic and very iconic line.

I was 16 at the time, I grew up hearing civil defence air raid test - the three minute warning - every month. This moment was utterly electric, from being perceived as weak by the Soviets in the early-80s, to parked at the most symbolic place, making a demand that would be fulfilled. God Bless Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

not sure how you could down-vote this speech. even if you don't like Reagan, this was a great speech. people were shot and killed trying to get through the barricade from East Germany. Actually, the whole Eastern Bloc - the entire border area was patrolled by armed guards with dogs. I remember seeing the remains of the barbed wire while in the Czech Republic. I asked why they had not taken these down. The guy said, "So we never forget".

I have been watching Reagan speeches on you tube for years now. His style, delivery, voice, and the content of the speech are just awesome. I have never heard anyone deliver it like him. Rest in peace Mr. president...

Reagan delivering the most iconic line of the entire cold war and an utter nuke at the same time

We need a "Mr. Xi Jinping, tear down this firewall!" moment.

Such a powerful moment in history. Ronnie did us proud.

I was in Berlin 8 months after the far of the Wall. As you crossed the long metal bar that used to anchor the Wall, the feeling of stepping into a different world was visceral.

Why can’t we have presidents like him today? I hate it so much.

One of the defining moments of history. Always has been, always will be

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American film actor and politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Reagan was raised in a poor family in small towns of northern Illinois. He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and worked as a sports announcer on several regional radio stations. After moving to California in 1937, he found work as an actor and starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild—the labor union for actors—where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a motivational speaker at General Electric factories. Reagan had been a Democrat until 1962, when he became a conservative and switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing", supported Barry Goldwater's foundering presidential campaign and earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman. Building a network of supporters, he was elected governor of California in 1966. As governor, Reagan raised taxes, turned a state budget deficit to a surplus, challenged the protesters at the University of California, ordered in National Guard troops during a period of protest movements in 1969, and was re-elected in 1970. He twice ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1968 and 1976. Four years later in 1980, he won the nomination and then defeated incumbent president Jimmy Carter. At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to have been elected to a first-term, until Donald Trump (aged 70 years, 220 days) in 2017. Reagan is still, however, the oldest president elected, at 73 years, 349 days of age at his second inauguration. Reagan faced former vice president Walter Mondale when he ran for re-election in 1984, and defeated him, winning the most electoral votes of any U.S. president, 525, or 97.6% of the 538 votes in the Electoral College. This was the second-most lopsided presidential election in modern U.S. history after Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 victory over Alfred M. Landon, in which he won 98.5% or 523 of the (then-total) 531 electoral votes. Soon after taking office, Reagan began implementing sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated tax rate reduction to spur economic growth, economic deregulation, and reduction in government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, and fought public sector labor. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4%, and an average annual growth of real GDP of 3.4%. Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending which contributed to increased federal outlays overall, even after adjustment for inflation. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, and the Iran–Contra affair. In June 1987, four years after he publicly described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire", Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!", during a speech at the Brandenburg Gate. He transitioned Cold War policy from détente to rollback by escalating an arms race with the USSR while engaging in talks with Gorbachev. The talks culminated in the INF Treaty, which shrank both countries' nuclear arsenals. Reagan began his presidency during the decline of the Soviet Union, and the Berlin Wall fell just ten months after the end of his term. Germany reunified the following year, and on December 26, 1991 (nearly three years after he left office), the Soviet Union collapsed. When Reagan left office in 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton, as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. He was the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve two full terms, after a succession of five prior presidents did not. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year. Afterward, his informal public appearances became more infrequent as the disease progressed. He died at home on June 5, 2004. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States, and he is an icon among conservatives. Evaluations of his presidency among historians and the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents.

A awesome president, Ronald Reagan. The Russians didn't want to mess with Ronnie, when he asked for the wall to be torn down, they knew he meant it. One of the best presidents we ever had.

Peace through strength. Now we're back to war through weakness

🎵I saw the decade in, when it seemed the world could change, at the blink of an eye. And if anything, then there's your sign of the times🎵

One of the great lines from a president ever

It took a surprising quarter of a decade to come about, but it did alright and Reagan / Gorby was the relationship that made it happen. Those two ought to have been canonised for saving the world from nuclear annihilation and putting the MADness behind us.

RIP Gorbachev