Reagan’s ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’ was almost left unsaid, recalls former speechwriter
The passage – which includes the legendary line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” – was almost cut after State Department and National Security Council advisers found them outlandish and provocative, Robinson said. In one case, a White House official thought it was even un-presidential, he recalled.
Robinson then stepped in. He told the president that people in East Berlin would be able to hear him speak. Depending on weather conditions, he might even be picked up in Moscow by radio. Robinson asked if there was anything Reagan wanted to convey to the people listening from the other side.
“And the president said, ‘Well, there’s that passage about tearing down the wall. That’s what I want to say to them. That wall has to come down.’”
For the next three weeks, the National Security Council and the State Department went back and forth with the White House communications team to change the speech. Robinson said seven alternative drafts were submitted, each version missing the call to tear down the wall.
Reagan Trump Washington. Who was the greatest POTUS? I still think Washington, because he walked away when he could have become king and ended this grand experiment before it began. Reagan defeated the evil empire, but didn’t kill it. Trump if he kills the swamp.