Standing at the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, Ronald Wilson Reagan demanded that the Berlin Wall, that physical manifestation of the cruelty of the Soviet Empire, be brought down.
It was not a wall for defense. It was not a wall for protection. It was the wall of a continent-spanning prison. It was a wall to keep people trapped inside.
Reagan directed his comments to the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan believed that “the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.” The Berlin Wall was the embodiment of an assault on liberty and a barrier to peace.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” said Reagan. He went on to add, “this wall will fail. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.”
Many at the time scoffed. The American left was deep in throes of their very public 60-year infatuation with communism. No liberal in America wanted to believe the wall would fall because they did not want to believe communism could fail.
But, as Reagan said, the wall was doomed. It couldn’t withstand the forces of faith and freedom. He was proven right just 18 months later, when the wall came down in November 1989.
With the collapse of the wall came the collapse of the Soviet Union, yet the American left continues its infatuation with the destructive philosophy that wall represented. The left still seeks to suppress speech, fight faith, and trample truth.
They will fail if we will fight.
Faith… Freedom… Truth… Liberty… will always prevail against the walls of tyranny.
