surely the critics who called this man ‘out of touch’ could never have conceived the united states would elect a man like george w. bush to the white house..

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.

beginning 10 years ago, the soviets challenged the western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly ss-20 nuclear missiles, capable of striking every capital in europe. the western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter-deployment unless the soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides. for many months, the soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. as the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there were difficult days–days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city–and the soviets later walked away from the table.

but through it all, the alliance held firm. and i invite those who protested then– i invite those who protest today–to mark this fact: because we remained strong, the soviets came back to the table. and because we remained strong, today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.

ronald reagan
remarks at the brandenburg gate
west berlin, germany
12 june 1987