Reagan’s Sign of the Cross Speech June 12, 1987

Reagan’s Sign of the Cross Speech June 12, 1987

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison.

Every American high school student knows, or should know, that President Ronald Reagan went to the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on this date in 1987. The President said: “If you seek liberalization, open this gate…Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” (Yes, kids, there was a West Berlin then.)

American journalists were enchanted by Mikhail Gorbachev in those days. The young and charismatic Kremlin boss was “the human face of Communism” that they’d been seeking. Leader of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union ), this dynamic man spoke of glasnost...