John F. Kennedy, speaking at the Berlin Wall, condemns Communism
and reaffirms American solidarity for
Two thousand years
ago--[Kennedy is interrupted by applause.] --Two thousand years ago, the
proudest boast was "civis Romanus
sum!" Today in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"
There are many people in
the world who really don't understand--or say they don't--what is the greatest
issue between the free world and Communist world. Let them come to
Berlin!
There are some who say
that "communism is the wave of the future." Let them come to
Berlin!
And there are some who say
in
And there are even a few
who say "yes, that it's true, that communism is an evil system, but it
permits us to make economic progress." Lass' sie
nach Berlin en kommen!
Let them come to Berlin!
Freedom has many
difficulties, and democracy is not perfect But
we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from
leaving us! I want to say on behalf of my countrymen who live many miles
away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they
take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a
distance the story of the last eighteen years.
I know of no town, no
city, that has been besieged for eighteen years that still lives with the
vitality and the force and the hope and the determination of the city of West
Berlin!
While the wall is the
most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system,
all the world can see, and we take no satisfaction in it. For it is an
offense not only against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and
wives and brothers and sisters and dividing a people who wished to be joined
together!
What is true of this
city is true to
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Freedom has many difficulties,
and democracy is not perfect
But we have never had to put a wall
up to keep our people in!
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In eighteen years of
peace and good faith this generation of Germans has earned the right to be
free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting
peace with goodwill to all people.
You live in a defended
island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you,
as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today to the hopes of
tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin and all your country
of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall, to the day
of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.
Freedom is indivisible,
and when one man is enslaved, no man is free. When all are free, then we
look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one, and this country
and this great continent of
All
free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of
THE END.