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The Spectacle Blog
Today is the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate address, and Peter Robinson, who wrote the speech, shares some documents from the Reagan library, recording the thoughts of administration advisers who pushed to excise what became its most famous line. Hilariously, a memo from Peter W. Rodman to Colin Powell calls it “a mediocre speech and a missed opportunity.”
It was, of course, one of the greatest and most important speeches of the 20th Century, and it bears rewatching. The “tear down this wall” section remains incredibly moving, of course, but there are other lines that remain striking, including Reagan’s praise of the “technological revolution… marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.” A few years later, the World Wide Web was born — and the Berlin Wall was rubble.
View all comments (3) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/06/12/tear-down-this-wall-turns-25
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Occam's Tool| 6.12.12 @ 8:02PM
And Powell agreed on the mediocrity, I'm sure. Little ants crawling on the valley bottom, far below the shadow of Ronaldus Magnus, looming like Everest.
hook| 6.12.12 @ 11:15PM
I wish to God there were a Reagan now to undo this mess that the moron in the White House has made. I think Romney will win and he is a good man, but a Reagan comes along maybe twice in a century and Obama is even more damaging than Jimmy Carter.
JimH| 6.13.12 @ 8:30AM
I recall seeing a poster of Reagan (in western gear I think). It said 'Remember when we had a real president?'