It was twenty years ago today - June 12, 1987, that Ronald Reagan made the speech that became the tipping point for the direction of the western world -- JFK's "world of freedom" -- in the end of the twentieth century.
It was my privilege to stand there in Berlin that day and hear President Reagan, at that time my Commander-In-Chief, make his stunning delivery in front of the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate.
He didn't have to say it. It was a great speech without it and in fact, his advisors all told him to leave it out. Twenty years later I can still tell you firsthand the cold war was very real.
But making the challenge based on his conviction that it was the right thing to do changed the world. "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, tear down this wall!"
Freedom has a cost and we stand on the shoulders of great men.
