"Tear Down This Wall" by Ronald Reagan (1987): "Tear Down This Wall," List 1

In 1987 President Ronald Reagan traveled to Berlin and delivered this monumental speech encouraging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. determination
    firmness of purpose
    But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination.
  2. unalterable
    not capable of being changed
    For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin.
  3. instrument
    the means whereby some act is accomplished
    But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same—still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
  4. impose
    compel to behave in a certain way
    But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same—still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
  5. totalitarian
    of a government with an authority exerting absolute control
    But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same—still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
  6. lament
    express grief verbally
    Yet I do not come here to lament.
  7. doctrine
    a belief accepted as authoritative by some group or school
    Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."
  8. desperation
    a state in which all hope is lost or absent
    Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."
  9. commemorate
    call to remembrance
    In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall plan.
  10. flourish
    grow vigorously
    Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty—that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom.
  11. tariff
    a government tax on imports or exports
    The German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes.
  12. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
    But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history.
  13. decline
    grow worse
    In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind—too little food.
  14. enterprise
    an organization created for business ventures
    Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.
  15. profound
    of the greatest intensity; complete
    Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state?
Created on Tue Jun 03 14:36:32 EDT 2025 (updated Tue Jun 03 14:37:48 EDT 2025)

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