Features January 2014
A turn of phrase
Crafting Reagan’s most famous speech
My most memorable experience working under Reagan began in the Spring of 1987. The President was going to make a trip to Italy for the Venice Economic Summit and the White House received a request from Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of West Germany, asking the President also to visit Berlin, which was then celebrating its 800th anniversary. Several ranking international officials had visited including Mikhail Gorbachev, which concerned Kohl. He wanted the American President to visit West Berlin.
After the White House agreed, I was given the assignment of writing Reagan’s speech, so off I went to Germany with a pre-advance group: the people who deal with the German press and the German security.
When we arrived, the first thing we did...
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