Berliner Plus 50

Tomorrow, June 26, is the 50th anniversary of JFKs "Ich bin ein un Berliner" speech. As a 12 year old kid, I thought he was talking over his head. But as I grew up, I had the opportunity to study (I was a Political Science and History major), read, listen to and analyze the deeper meaning of this speech on the heals of The Peace Speech, which was his commencement address at American University on June 10, 1963.

The characteristics of the two speeches couldn't be more different and stark. In The Peace Speech, he offers an olive branch to the Soviets in order to come to the table and discuss nuclear weapons and other issues of note. In the "Berliner" speech, which was given at the Berlin Wall sixteen days later, he offers a challenge and a promise to both Germanys, the Soviet Union and the world, that the US will be in Europe for the duration, until and beyond when Germany, and Berlin, are one again.

He talks about the Roman Empire, where Civis Romanus sum, or I am a Roman citizen, was the proudest statement a Roman from two millennia ago could say,  and equates its importance to modern Berlin, Ich bin ein un Berliner, or I am a Berliner, and the importance of that statement in 1963. The meaning wasn't lost in the translation to the Germans, or to the Soviets, although he actually said "I am a donut".

It doesn't matter. It's meaning was clear. Just like President Reagan challenged the Soviets, and Mikhail Gorbachev at the same spot in front of The Wall, with "Mr Gorbachev. Tear down this wall!" in June, 1987, Kennedy knew exactly what he meant and what he was doing in 1963.

This speech has withstood the test of time. 50 years, well, can be looked at through the prism of history. We will find that this speech in all probability, was really the beginning of the end for the old USSR, because shortly after, President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger used the vacillation in the old Soviet regime to open China and build a Detente with both countries which has lasted to the present day.

Kennedy died later that year and never saw the long-term result from that speech. He would have been proud to say that he played a part in the changing of the world. Perhaps, the Cold War would have ended sooner had he lived to see a second term, for he surely would have been reelected. His key advisors have shown us his second-term agenda to see what was plotted and he would have finished all the things he planned.

It's too bad, because history doesn't allow for woulda-, shoulda- and coulda-beens. We can't know an alternative  history because to the practical mind, there is none. But we can know this: Kennedy's "Berliner" speech showed the world that his Inauguration Address was not platitudes and empty words on a piece of paper. When Kennedy spoke, it meant something. Only Reagan, since that time, has said something as meaningful.

And it began 50 Years ago tomorrow..