Ronald Reagan's Speech -"Tear Down This Wall"

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Ronald Reagan’s Speech: “Tear Down this Wall” James Mason Speech 219 Prof. Dr. Bourdeau Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University February 4, 2013 I believe one of the greatest speakers in the last 40 years was our former President, Mr. Ronald Reagan. I think he was one of the best public speakers to ever take the office president of the United States in the past 50 years. President Reagan was a former Hollywood actor. I believe he used these skills as an actor to orate some of the most emotionally moving speeches in the last century. His public speaking abilities have even coined him the name: ‘The Great Communicator’. Even as a Democrat, one would have to agree President Reagan gave some very emotionally eloquent speeches during his terms as president. My personal favorite speech President Reagan gave was his “Tear Down this Wall “speech”, given on June 12, 1987. I believe this speech was one of the turning points in the cold war. The cold war was most certainly a war of words and ideas. Historians could see the speech “Tear Down this Wall” as yet another critical battle in cold war with the Soviet Union. We were well prepared in this war due to the fact that our leader, of the time, was an expert orator. The late cold war era for me was a frightening time to grow up as a teenager. Movies like the network television drama “THE DAY AFTER” reminded us how quickly our world could come to an end over a political squabble. The impending doom of a nuclear catastrophe always seemed to linger in my thoughts in my teenage years. This was probably due to the fact that the public media seemed to concentrate on this particular issue in news and entertainment on a regular basis as well. For my family especially, the cold war was something that affected us personally. My stepmother was a recent immigrant from Poland in the 1980s. I had become very

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