James Mann - The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan

In their chants of “Gorbachev, Gorbachev,” the protesters gave voice to the hopes that the Soviet leader was inspiring in East Germany. They exposed the tensions between the Soviet Union and Honecker’s East German regime, which was rejecting Gorbachev’s drive for glasnost. The differences between the Soviet and East German governments were illustrated by their separate reactions to what had happened at the rock concert.

Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Boris Pyadyshev was asked about the nights of upheaval in East Berlin. “In shouting, ‘Gorbachev, Gorbachev,’ we’re not in the least annoyed by that,” he answered. “We can only be pleased with that.” By contrast, East German officials at first denied there had been any incidents at all and later suggested they were the result of a “provocation” by West Germany. 14

Because Reagan was to arrive in Berlin within days, the East German demonstrations were unsettling to American diplomats. Many of them recalled the disastrous events of 1956, when Radio Free Europe, the American radio station funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, broadcast encouragement for the Hungarian revolution. Hungarians taking to the streets were given the false impression that the Eisenhower administration might intervene on their behalf. Instead, the United States took no action as the rebellion was crushed.

Richard Burt, the U.S. ambassador to West Germany, sent a nervous cable to Secretary of State George Shultz and National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci, telling them the disturbances in East Berlin meant that “the speech will have even greater resonance than it might otherwise have had. It will be especially important to strike the right balance between inspiring hope and opposing totalitarianism, while making clear that [Reagan’s] is a vision of change through peaceful means.”

By this time, Burt knew it would be unwise to try on his own to reopen the acrimonious debate over whether the president should say, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” That question had been decided—more or less. 15

During his final years in the White House, Ronald Reagan traveled abroad in a style that was both leisurely and regal. During his first trip to Europe as president in 1982, he had closed his eyes and dozed briefly during a meeting with Pope John Paul II at the end of a long day. Ever since, aides and his wife, Nancy, had made sure that he had plenty of time to rest overseas before he met with foreign leaders.

The president was scheduled to take part in the G7 summit, a gathering of the leaders of the world’s seven leading economic powers that was to begin in Venice on Monday, June 8, 1987. The Reagans arrived nearly five days early, on the night of Wednesday, June 3, and went into seclusion eight miles outside the city at an eighteenth-century palazzo, the Villa Condulmer. The villa and its extensive gardens were being used as a hotel and golf course, but the entire complex was emptied out for the Reagans. White House stewards took over the cooking and service. Reagan’s personal physician and Nancy Reagan’s hairdresser also traveled in the presidential entourage.

A White House advance team had flown in a special bed from Portugal and installed it in the villa. The Reagans had slept in this king-sized bed during a state visit to Lisbon in May 1985, and had found it especially comfortable. White House aides were unable to explain to the press whether the beds in Villa Condulmer (or elsewhere in Italy) were too soft, too hard, or too small. 1When the Reagans arrived at the villa near midnight, the president took a Dalmane sleeping pill and slept soundly until 8:45 a.m. He slipped off and had breakfast while Nancy Reagan slept until 10:00 a.m. 2

They remained at the Villa for the following two days. Reagan’s official schedule euphemistically called these days “Washington Work/Private Time,” but the principal task was overcoming jet lag. Aides had brought videocassettes for the president, and the Reagans spent their first night in Italy watching a 1947 John Wayne movie called Angel and the Badman . On the second night, they chose Laurel and Hardy. One night at the villa, a White House aide gave the Reagans the tape of a more contemporary movie, Shanghai Surprise , starring Sean Penn and Madonna; the Reagans lasted only fifteen minutes before abandoning it. 3

That Saturday, the Reagans flew to Rome for a visit to the Vatican. The president held an hour-long, one-on-one meeting with Pope John Paul II, who was preparing a visit to Poland the following week. One of the main subjects on the agenda was Mikhail Gorbachev; Reagan offered the pope his impressions of the Soviet leader and briefed him on U.S.-Soviet arms-control negotiations.

But as the pope was speaking, Reagan momentarily dozed off again, just as he had in 1982. The official White House photographer, Bill Fitzpatrick, noticed Reagan’s eyes close and purposely dropped his camera, making a noise that woke up the president. On the plane ride back from Rome to Venice, Jim Kuhn, the president’s personal assistant, offered the Reagans an explanation for his tendency to fall asleep during his meetings with the pope. “For some reason, the pope’s voice has a hypnotic effect on the president,” Kuhn told them. “It’s not his fault. If he was to meet the pope again, the same circumstances would prevail. There’s nothing you can do about it, Mr. President.” 4

The Reagans enjoyed one more day of rest at Villa Condulmer. The president was meeting with his top aides, preparing for the economic summit and for Berlin. One of the subjects the staff had to address, yet again, was the internal dispute within the administration over the speech Reagan was to give at the Brandenburg Gate. Secretary of State George Shultz, who joined the Reagans in Venice, called Chief of Staff Howard Baker and Deputy Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein, explaining that the State Department continued to oppose some of the language in the speech. Shultz said he shared his department’s objections and hoped that his views would be conveyed to the president.

The White House aides were meeting with Reagan daily at Villa Condulmer. Duberstein figured that Shultz’s message was merely for the record, a formality that would enable him to tell subordinates in the State Department he had done his best. He knew that Shultz saw Reagan regularly and could get in to see him alone whenever he wanted. Duberstein reasoned that if the secretary of state still felt really strongly about the Berlin speech, he wouldn’t have made his opposition known in a phone call to the White House staff; he would have asked for five minutes of time to see Reagan on his own. 5As a result, Shultz’s last protest was brushed aside. Once more, for the final time, the State Department lost the argument and the Berlin Wall speech remained intact.

By the first week in June, well before Reagan landed in West Berlin, anyone in the city who was paying attention would have known that the president’s speech was going to urge that the Berlin Wall be torn down. Reagan administration officials made no effort to conceal that this would be a central theme of the speech.

The White House released the written text of an “interview” Reagan had given to the Deutsche Press-Agentur, West Germany’s news service. In fact, this was once again not an interview in the usual meaning of the word, but written responses to written questions, issued in Reagan’s name but prepared by his staff. It was the same sort of format used in the summer of 1986, when Reagan had said, “I would like to see the wall come down today, and I call upon those responsible to dismantle it.” 6This time, on June 2, 1987, Reagan said in the supposed interview: “In a word, we want the Berlin Wall to come down, so that the reintegration of all four sections of the city into one unit again becomes a reality.” Shultz, meanwhile, offered a similar preview of the speech to another West German audience. Speaking to reporters in West Berlin, he called for removing “the dividing line in Europe, which includes the Berlin Wall.” America would prefer to see Berlin as an open city without the wall, the secretary of state said. 7Not surprisingly, these remarks were treated as major news in the West German press. Reagan: WE WANT THE WALL TO COME DOWN! said a front-page headline in the Berliner Morgenpost on June 4, eight days before Reagan’s visit. 8