EASTERN EUROPE: PERPLEXITY AND PROTEST 321President to say: ‘Mr Gorbachëv, tear down this wall!’ Although the
phrase was not a summons to rebellion, it implicitly personalized
responsibility for the changes that America wished to see in Eastern
Europe. Gorbachëv might well take offence. The question engaged
Shultz and Powell as well as the speech-writing team.^30 Powell came
down in favour of toning down the rhetoric.^31 But Reagan overruled
him. He liked the idea of challenging Gorbachëv and had an intuitive
sense that a firm political push was now appropriate. He passed on his
personal thanks to Robinson.^32
On 11 June Reagan spoke at the Brandenburg Gate. No American
President had spoken quite like him. Even President Kennedy, when
calling himself a ‘Berliner’ in the same city in 1963, had stopped short
of nailing personal blame to Party First Secretary Khrushchëv. Reagan
hailed West Germany’s achievements in political freedom and eco-
nomic advance since 1945. ‘Even today,’ he declared, ‘the Soviet Union
still cannot feed itself.’ He welcomed the limited reforms that were
occurring in the USSR, but he called for more to be done.
He made no direct mention of the German Democratic Republic.
Insisting that the source of the trouble lay in Moscow, he issued the
following injunction: ‘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, Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ He gave a
consummate performance. Every phrase, pause and repetition in the
speech was managed for the greatest impact. He remarked that
the Soviet leadership had entered serious talks because NATO had
increased its military strength. He expressed the hope that one day the
two halves of Berlin could jointly host the Olympic games.^33
Pravda, in a break with precedent, avoided an expression of
anger.^34 Calm was the order of the day in Moscow, if not in East Berlin
where Honecker went on TV to release his splenetic fury. Gorbachëv
himself stayed silent. Though it had been he and not Honecker whom
Reagan had named in his speech, the Soviet General Secretary could
see no point in uttering words of displeasure. He would only look
weak and ineffective. He anyhow still wanted to complete agreements
with the Americans. He avoided a spat with the President.
He had other concerns in Eastern Europe in those weeks as the
news from Poland grew ever more unsettling. Jaruzelski admitted that
Western creditors had Poland by the throat – his latest idea was to
escape their grasp by signing deals with Japan to build a car factory in