TEAR DOWN THIS WALL by ROMESH RATNESAR

Author:ROMESH RATNESAR
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Griscom asked Reagan if he had any thoughts on the speeches for his European trip. In Rome, he would make brief remarks before meeting with Pope John Paul II, a vital ally in the struggle to liberate Eastern Europe. That speech had been assigned to Gilder, who asked the president what role religion could play in changing the communist system. “He went into this really beautiful discourse on how change in the Soviet Union would have to be a spiritual awakening,” Gilder says. “He talked about it beautifully. I took notes as fast as I could.” It was a speechwriter’s dream: the president practically dictated the whole thing for Gilder. “It wasn’t a long speech—just about four pages. And so I tacked on an intro and an ending. The middle two pages were just straight Reagan.” Robinson wasn’t as lucky. His speech was the last one discussed. When Griscom asked Reagan what he thought of the Berlin draft, Reagan responded that he liked it. Robinson wanted more. “I’ve been over there,” he told the president. “What do you want to say to people on the other side of the Wall?” Reagan thought for a moment. “Well, there’s that passage about tearing down the Wall,” he said. “That’s what I’d like to say to them.” The meeting had lasted twenty-one minutes. Robinson was disappointed that Reagan didn’t offer anything new, but as they left the Oval Office, Dolan knew he had gotten what he came for: the president’s endorsement would be his most powerful weapon in the bureaucratic battles to come.

Two days after the session with the president, Robinson delivered a revised draft to Dolan. He had inserted a fresh anecdote at the end, about how the East German government had removed a cross from the sculpture that sits on top of the Brandenburg Gate and replaced it “with a communist wreath.” Later, when the communists built the city’s highest structure, the television tower above Alexanderplatz, they were stunned to discover what they perceived as an architectural flaw. “Even today when the sun strikes that dome—the dome that towers over all Berlin—the light makes the sign of the cross.” There were other significant changes. Robinson had condensed much of the historical section and moved up the challenge to Gorbachev. “If you seek liberalization—if you seek glasnost—come to Berlin. Come here, to this Wall. Herr Gorbachev, machen Sie dieses Tor auf.” The translation of the phrase was in brackets, but Peter did not intend for Reagan to say it in English: Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.

Despite Reagan’s instructions, Robinson had left out the call to tear down the Wall. “What did you do that for?” Dolan asked. Robinson explained that to Germans, the Brandenburg Gate, not the Wall, was the more resonant symbol of division. Dolan shook his head. In his handwritten markup of the draft, next to “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate,” Dolan scrawled the words “Tear down this Wall.” The next day, Robinson submitted another draft incorporating Dolan’s suggestions. This

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