Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War [Hardcover]

Romesh Ratnesar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2009

On June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan addressed a crowd of 20,000 people in West Berlin in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. The words he delivered that afternoon would become among the most famous in presidential history. “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate,” Reagan said. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!” In this riveting and fast-paced audio book, Romesh Ratnesar provides an account of how Reagan arrived at his defining moment and what followed from it. The audio is based on interviews with numerous former Reagan administration officials and American and German eyewitnesses to the speech, as well as recently declassified State Department documents and East German records of the president’s trip. Ratnesar provides new details about the origins of Reagan’s speech and the debate within the administration about how to issue the fateful challenge to Gorbachev. Tear Down This Wall re-creates the charged atmosphere surrounding Reagan’s visit to Berlin and explores the speech’s role in bringing about the fall of the Berlin Wall less than two years later. At the heart of the story is the relationship between two giants of the late twentieth century: Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Departing from the view that Reagan “won” the Cold War, Ratnesar demonstrates that both Reagan and Gorbachev played indispensable roles in bringing about the end of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry. It was the trust that Reagan and Gorbachev built in each other that allowed them finally to overcome the suspicions that had held their predecessors back. Calling on Gorbachev to tear down the Wall, in Reagan’s mind, might actually encourage him to do it. Reagan’s speech in Berlin was more than a good sound bite. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can now see the speech as the event that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Standing before Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in 1987, President Reagan delivered his famous challenge to Soviet Premier Gorbachev: to tear down the wall dividing East and West Berlin. Within two years, the wall crumbled, and the U.S.S.R. soon followed. Time magazine deputy managing editor Ratnesar has mined American and East German archives to produce a lively, impressively detailed history of the iconic speech. Despite impeccable conservative credentials, Reagan considered avoiding nuclear war more important than defeating communism. This only became obvious in 1985, when Gorbachev assumed the Soviet leadership. Over the course of several meetings, the two leaders developed a rapport and announced disarmament agreements that distressed Reagan's hard-line supporters. In early 1987, speechwriter Peter Robinson produced a draft containing the tear down this wall statement, followed by a tortuous four months of innumerable drafts and quarrels with high officials who considered it unnecessarily offensive. In the end, Reagan liked the phrase, so it stayed. Being the world's sole superpower has brought America little satisfaction, so readers should enjoy this slim, lucid account of a time when events turned out brilliantly. (Nov.)
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Review

"Among the fascinating challenges facing historians are figuring out how Ronald Reagan's mind worked and assessing the factors that led to the end of the Cold War. Romesh Ratnesar weaves these together brilliantly. This is an exciting narrative that explains a critical moment in history and brings to life the amazing players in a great drama." -- WALTER ISAACSON, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe

"Romesh Ratnesar has written a smart and deeply illuminating history of Ronald Reagan at the zenith of the Cold War. This is a fine, important, and admirable study." -- DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

"Romesh Ratnesar's absorbing, fine-tuned account offers a valuable behind-the-scenes view of the Reagan White House at work -- and, on the other side of the Berlin Wall, of the world of the democratic dissidents whom Reagan uplifted. It is an important addition to the growing library on the Reagan era." -- SEAN WILENTZ, Princeton University, author of The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008

"The four words that Ronald Reagan hurled at Mikhail Gorbachev were an exhortation, even a demand, but they were also part of a dialogue, a partnership, and a friendship that changed the world. It is high time for a focused study of how that speech came to be written and why it was so consequential. Romesh Ratnesar has told the story with narrative verve, brilliant political and personal insight, and a combination of concision and pithiness worthy of the Great Communicator himself." -- STROBE TALBOTT, author of The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation

"With the perspective of time, access to newly available papers, and a Reaganesque flair for storytelling with a point, Romesh Ratnesar gives us the ultimate insider's account of the history that unfolded when those around him, sometimes reluctantly, let Reagan be Reagan. No future discussion of the Cold War and how it ended will be complete without reference to this riveting book." -- RICHARD NORTON SMITH, author of The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416556907
• ISBN-13: 978-1416556909
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,119,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Detailed, but passionless, December 21, 2009

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War (Hardcover)

This book is a look a the infamous Berlin Wall, and the 1987 speech given by US President Ronald Reagan wherein he challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to tear the wall down. Starting with a quick look at the origins of the Wall, the book quickly moves on to the political rise of Mr. Reagan, focusing on the way his White House worked. Then, the interaction between the two leaders is examined, through to the end of the Reagan presidency.

Overall, I found this to be an OK book. It's far from a paean to President Reagan, but is instead, a clear-eyed look at what was going on behind the scenes. No punches are pulled, with such lines as, "Reagan was either spinning or deluding himself" (Page 55.) being included. My biggest problem with the book is that the author took such a momentous event as the end of the Cold War, and succeeds in reducing it to a surprisingly boring listing of who did what and why and when.

I guess what I would say is that this is a detailed look at what transpired behind the scenes in the Reagan White House, but it's the kind of sadly passionless book that would probably only really appeal to a policy wonk. The only passion to be found in the book is contained in the epilogue, which is an out-of-place salute to US President Barack Obama. I suppose this is not a complete surprise as the author is a deputy managing editor of Time magazine, which became noted for having a picture of the President on something like every other one of its covers.

I had hoped to enjoy this book, but I didn't, and I do not recommend it.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fine book marred by weird ending, December 4, 2009

By 

W. Schmidt (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War (Hardcover)

This is a well-written, clear-eyed and unbiased book about President Reagan's role in bringing down the Berlin Wall. The focus is on his speech-writers and the interesting machinations they went through en route to creating the speeches we find so memorable. In addition, the author interviewed key people, such as Gorbychav and gleaned many fascinating insights and anecdotes from them.

My only complaint is what has to be one of the strangest last chapters I've ever read. After not mentioning Obama for the entire book, the last chapter suddenly discusses Obama vs. Reagan, how they are alike, and different, how much Obama respected Reagan (really? seems our new president is trying to tear down everything Reagan held dear in respect to government's role in our lives as well as how to conduct foreign policy). The author concludes by giving Obama a pep-talk on what he must do to have as much impact on America and the world as Reagan did... of course, assuring us that President Obama has the goods and will deliver. Say what?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History in the making, June 10, 2010

By 

seeker "open-minded but traditional" (CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech that Ended the Cold War (Hardcover)

This is an excellent account of a great historical moment in American history concerning one of the great historical developments of the 20th century, the fall of communism. Well done! Couldn't have been better; history as exciting as a novel, but true. Hat's off to the author, making this a well focused, informative, and entertaining read on an eminently important subject. Well worth reading, especially by future leaders.