Gorbachov ended the entire Soviet era, resulting in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reagan tried to take credit, by giving a speech. Please. But did Reagans 1987 address have much bearing on the actual fall of wall? Thats a newer idea, one that happens to put Reagan at the center of a wider narrative of communisms descent in Europe. In fact, not only was Reagan out of office by the time the wall collapsed in the summer of 1989, but his speech had received very little coverage in the media, according to Time and to historian Michael Meyer, who wrote in his history of 1989s revolutions, Major U.S. newspapers with correspondents in Europe, such as the New York Times, carried stories that ran in the back pages. Reagan also delivered the speech to an audience of about 45,000, one tenth the crowd estimated to have attended John F. Kennedys 1963 speech. When Reagan declared Tear down this Wall, its easy for us to forget now, he was the visibly aged leader of a lame duck administration clouded by scandal and corruption, Iran-Contra in particular.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 19:03:36 +0000
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