By DPA
Berlin : Â Berliners roared their approval when Hollywood actor-turned-US president Ronald Reagan made his famous Tear-down-this-Wall speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate 20 years ago – on June 12, 1987.
Reagan boldly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, who was then the general secretary of the Soviet Union, to tear down the Berlin Wall as a symbol of his desire for increasing freedom in the Soviet bloc.
Thousands gathered in Berlin to listen to Reagan, interrupting his speech with frequent volleys of applause. But rapturously as his words were received that day, there were few among the crowd who seriously believed the Berlin Wall might soon fall.
In fact, in the months preceding his visit to Berlin a "hell of a fight went on" regarding the precise wording of Reagan's speech at the wall", according to Helmut Trotnow, the director of the Allied Museum in Berlin.
Reagan's speech had been written by Peter Robinson, a young presidential speechwriter who spent several months in Berlin consulting officials on what should go into the 20-minute speech.
"There was a great amount of discussion at the US secretary of state and national security level about what should be included in the speech," Trotnow said.
During the drafting process, there was an immense amount of debate over three months, with the document being passed back and forth. US national security advisor and future secretary of state, Colin Powell was among those with objections to what Reagan was about to say.
"This was, after all, a time when events were moving fast in the Soviet Union and there was much talk about Perestroika (economic restructuring) and Glasnost (liberalization and cultural thaw)."
Although the wall was technically the responsibility of the East German government, the US considered East Germany to be a "Soviet puppet state".
As US minister in Berlin, John Kornblum, was also consulted on the presidential text.
"It was a time when Gorbachev was just beginning to define his new kinds of policies, and a number of people were worried that a too aggressive speech might damage the ability to have a more positive relationship with him," said Kornblum, now a Lazard banking executive in the city.
In "The Reagan Diaries" published recently in the US, the late president describes how, after arriving at Tempelhof Airport for his 1987 visit, he and his wife Nancy were driven to the Reichstag, where "we viewed the wall from a balcony.
"Then, it was on to the Brandenburg Gate where I addressed tens and tens of thousands of people stretching as far as I could see. I got a tremendous reception," wrote Reagan proudly, and "was interrupted 28 times by cheers".
Reagan had stood on a hastily erected platform, just yards away from the Berlin Wall and in the presence of then German president Richard von Weizsaecker, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Berlin's 1987 governing mayor Eberhard Diepgen.
Reagan said: "We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it?
"There is one sign the Soviets can make," continued Reagan, "that would be unmistakeable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: come here to this Gate! Mr Gorbachev, open this Gate! Mr Gorbachev, tear down this Wall."
A huge cheer erupted from the crowd, as armed communist border guards in nearby watchtowers watched the proceedings, peering through binoculars.
Curiously, international media reaction was subdued, even dismissive, with the press choosing "either to ignore it or to criticise it", Kornblum says.
Less than two-and-a-half years later, on Nov 9, 1989, the brutal 29-year history of the Berlin Wall finally ended, as communism throughout Eastern Europe and in Moscow buckled.
"Then, people looked back and said, 'hey, he (Reagan) prepared the way.' But right after the speech was made it was essentially ignored. It (Reagan' speech) wasn't really lifted to its current status until 1989 after the wall came down," says Kornblum.