What Wall did Reagan tell Gorbachev to tear down?
Reagan called for the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the Berlin Wall, which had separated West and East Berlin since 1961.
Why was the tear down this wall speech important?
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Reagan’s stark challenge to tear down the Berlin Wall gave shape to increasing international pressure on Moscow to make good on its promises of openness and reform. The wall, which had become a symbol of Soviet oppression, came down two years later, on November 9, 1989.
What did the tearing down of the Berlin Wall symbolize?
Though East and West Germany were formally reunified on October 3, 1990, the fall of the Berlin Wall served as a symbol of the country’s unification—and, for many, the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the Cold War.
Why did they tear down the Berlin Wall?
It was on 9 November 1989, five days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, that the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled. East German leaders had tried to calm mounting protests by loosening the borders, making travel easier for East Germans.
What did Mikhail Gorbachev have to do with the Berlin Wall?
On this day in 1987, President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the wall that divided Communist East Germany from the western enclave in Berlin. In August 1961, the East Germans, with strong support from Moscow, erected the wall to deter their citizens from leaving for the West.
Who ordered the Berlin Wall to be torn down?
On June 12, 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenges Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany.
When did they tear down the Berlin Wall?
November 9, 1989
The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.
What famous wall was knocked down?
The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West.