The Proudest Boast
...stood at the podium on the steps of the city hall and looked out the square was full, the streets in all directions were lined, people were watching out their windows, and waving from the rooftops. They were waiting to hear, as they had waited for two years to hear, what the U.S. had to say about the Berlin Wall. And so he told them. Kennedy first used the history of the last 18 years of Berlin as the prime example of why communism has not, cannot and will not work. “There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let the come to Berlin.” This example was brilliant because it directly appealed to the audience, Berliners, and their past history of suffering. The repetition reinforced that Berlin is the epicenter of the Cold War and its history illustrates exactly why communism will not last. Kennedy then moved on in the next part of his speech to publicly address, for the only time in history, the building of the Berlin Wall. He states “democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us… While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity…” In this section Kennedy presents the Berlin Wall as a symbol of communism’s failures. He uses the symbolism of the wall, to turn people the people against communism and towards democracy. Lastly, Kennedy calls upon the people of Berlin to push for the advancement of freedom everywhere and to have hope. “In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free…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 of merely Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere…” However, it is interesting to note that here, and throughout his speech the word freedom tends to be synonymous with democracy. Never does the word democracy appear in the speech without freedom following close behind. This appears to be one of Kennedy’s two underlying messages. The first being simply that the U.S. is better than the U.S.S.R. Throughout the speech Kennedy uses the symbolism of the wall, repetition, and Berlin’s emotional past to reinforce the idea that the democratic world, also known as the free world, also known as the United States, is better than the communist world also known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His second underlying message, or goal, is to unify the United States and Berlin. He achieves this sense of unity in several ways. One direct way is the use of German in his speec...