"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!
I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides." - Ronald Reagan "Speech by President Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, "Remarks on East-West Relations"," June 12, 1987, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Ronald Reagan Library, Speeches http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/134316 |
"The American Side has continued to maintain its iron-clad position. And it is this very position that is blocking forward movement to an agreement on this central issue not only of Soviet-American relations, but also for the entire world. How are we going to proceed in the future?"
- Mikhail Gorbachev “Minutes of a Conversation between M.S. Gorbachev and the US Secretary of State G. Shultz,” October 23, 1987, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Archive of the Gorbachev Foundation. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/120793 |
"The Fall of the Soviet Union." History.com, edited by History.com Staff, A+E
Networks, 2011, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fall-of-soviet-union.
Accessed 6 Dec. 2016.