No. 5 John F. Kennedy - Berlin
Date: June 26, 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner!" Few, if any, American presidents abroad have received such a rapturous reception from their audience as the one John F. Kennedy enjoyed in Berlin on June 26, 1963. Despite the adulation, the back drop could not have been more grim. Kennedy was fresh off a bruising summit with Soviet Premier Kruschev and the Berlin Wall had been recently erected to stem the flow of East Germans fleeing the totalitarian German Democratic Republic. Kennedy’s visit, and the memorable speech it occasioned, was a stern rebuke to the Soviet Union and the Communist way of life. "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," Kennedy said. "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 Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin." It was a show of Western resolve for which Germany was grateful. Shortly after President Kennedy’s death in November 1963, the square where he spoke was renamed the John F. Kennedy Platz.
