"Tear Down This Wall" by Ronald Reagan (1987): "Tear Down This Wall," List 4

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. blockade
    a war measure isolating an area of importance to the enemy
    You've done so in spite of threats—the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade.
  2. fortitude
    strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity
    Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage.
  3. defiant
    boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
    Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage.
  4. sentiment
    a personal belief or judgment
    But I believe there's something deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of life—not mere sentiment.
  5. disabuse
    free somebody from an erroneous belief
    No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions.
  6. affirmation
    a statement asserting the truth of something
    Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom.
  7. thwart
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
    The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.
  8. impulse
    an instinctive motive
    The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.
  9. suppressed
    kept from public knowledge by various means
    There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.
  10. embodiment
    a new personification of a familiar idea
    As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, "This wall will fall."
Created on Tue Jun 03 14:37:23 EDT 2025 (updated Tue Jun 03 14:39:01 EDT 2025)

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