Lot 159
Ronald Reagan, Typescript Quote Signed "Ronald Reagan", one page 8½" x 11" with typed quote reading "Mr. Gorbachev - open up this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!", and below "Speech, Brandenburg Gate, East Germany", Very Fine.Estimate $1,000 - 1,500.
TYPESCRIPT OF THE FAMOUS "TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" QUOTE SIGNED BY RONALD REAGAN.
"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge issued by United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin. Reagan challenged Gorbachev, who was then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to tear it down as an emblem of Gorbachev's desire to increase freedom in the Eastern Bloc through glasnost ("transparency") and perestroika ("restructuring").