“You will be visiting Berlin at a time of ferment,” Secretary of State George Shultz wrote to his boss, Ronald Reagan, on May 11, 1987. The confidential memo was included in the briefing materials given to Reagan before a trip to Europe, which would include a speech in West Berlin. “Your address … offers the chance to call for the lowering of East-West barriers and an improved situation in Berlin,” a city that had been divided for 40 years. Shultz encouraged Reagan to appeal to Germans’ hope for change. “There is a sense,” the Secretary wrote, “of a need for emancipation.”
One month later, Reagan stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and delivered the six most famous words of his presidency: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Two years after that, the Berlin Wall collapsed.
