President Ronald Reagan made one of the most iconic speeches of the Cold War near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” His address highlighted the ideological and physical divisions between East and West Berlin, which had come to symbolize the broader conflict between communist and capitalist ideologies. Less than two and a half years after Reagan’s challenge, the Berlin Wall fell, symbolizing the end of the Cold War and a significant victory for freedom and democracy in Eastern Europe.
