Reagan's speech and larger role in the fall of the Wall

From the front page of the C-J (hat tip: Washington Times), it's interesting that the German chancellor was one of thousands to cross from East to West on that fateful evening-- and yesterday, apparently gave all (explicit) credit to Gorbachev.

Anyway, there's a good piece from James Mann in today's C-J on Reagan's larger role within the Fall of the Wall...

Mann argues for the importance of Reagan's diplomatic efforts-- in addition to the usual credit given to the speech and the arms build-up. He also makes a really nice point about Reagan addressing Gorbachev by name in the speech.

With the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tape of Ronald Reagan's famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate is likely to be played and replayed. “Mr. Gorbachev,” he declared, “tear down this wall!” But how significant was the speech, really? How important was its seemingly defiant tone in reuniting Berlin and “winning” the Cold War?...

Reagan's address served the purpose of shoring up public support as he moved to upgrade American relations with the Soviet Union. It was Reagan's diplomacy with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, bitterly opposed at the time by his conservative former supporters, that did the most to create the climate in which the Cold War could end.

By the time Reagan delivered his Berlin Wall speech, in June 1987, he had held two summits with Gorbachev and was moving toward two more....Reagan met five times with Gorbachev, more than any other U.S. president had met a Soviet leader during the Cold War....

Reagan's conciliatory policies toward the Soviets provoked anguished and increasingly bitter denunciations from the right wing....

The Berlin Wall speech produced an intense fight within the Reagan administration....Reagan's foreign policy advisers balked at the “Mr. Gorbachev” line....Reagan decided to leave the line in, judging rightly that Gorbachev could handle it. The speech served as a strong reaffirmation of the value of freedom and a reminder that, even as Cold War tensions eased, the United States would not accept the continuing division of Berlin, Germany or Europe.

Many Americans now assume the key part of Reagan's speech was the idea of tearing down the wall. But that was nothing new. It was almost boilerplate...But it was quite a change for a U.S. president to directly appeal to “Mr. Gorbachev” to tear it down. That was new....

What he said got the attention not so much of Gorbachev but of East German Communist Party leader Erich Honecker. Officially, the Berlin Wall was, after all, East Germany's wall. Needless to say, Honecker wasn't about to tear down the wall. But still, he would have liked Reagan to ask him, not Gorbachev, to do so. By addressing the words to Gorbachev, Reagan was reminding everyone of the reality that East Germany couldn't exist without Soviet support. In fact, Honecker, who would be forced to resign just before the wall fell...

Some conservatives now contend that the Reagan-Gorbachev diplomacy was irrelevant to the unraveling of Soviet power. They credit his much more hard-line defense buildup and his Strategic Defense Initiative, hallmarks of his first term in office, with determining the outcome of the Cold War and forcing Gorbachev to capitulate.

Such contentions gloss over an important distinction. It was one thing for Gorbachev to decide that the Soviet Union could not compete with the United States in military terms. It was another for him to abandon the Cold War entirely.

...everyone remembered Reagan's impassioned, confrontational “tear down this wall” speech. Few recalled that Reagan's actual policies, bitterly contested at the time, were aimed at courting Gorbachev, building up his stature and doing business with him.