time an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. as i speak, nato ministers are meeting in iceland to review the progress of our proposals for eliminating these weapons. at the talks in geneva, we have, also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons. and the western allies have, likewise, made far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons. while we pursue these arms reductions, i pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to deter soviet aggression at any level at which it might occur. [ applause ] and in cooperation with many of our allies, the united states is pursuing the strategic defense initiative.

research to base deterrents not on the threat of offensive retaliation but on defenses that truly defend, on systems, in short, that will not target populations but shield them. by these means, we seek to increase the safety of europe and all the world. but, we must remember a crucial fact. east and west do not mistrust each other because we're armed. we're armed because we mistrust each other. [ applause ] and our differences are not about weapons but about liberty. when president kennedy spoke at the city hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled. berlin was under siege. and today, despite all the pressures upon this city, berlin

stands secure in its liberty and freedom itself is transforming the globe. in the philippines, in south and central america, democracy has been given a rebirth. throughout the pacific, free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth. in the industrialized nations, a technological revolution is taking place. a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications. in europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom. yet, in this age of redoubled economic growth, of information and innovation, the soviet union faces a choice. it must make fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete. [ applause ]

today, thus represents a moment of hope. we in the west stand ready to cooperate with the east to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer, freer world and surely there is no better place than berlin, the meeting place of east and west, to make a start. [ applause ] free people of berlin today, as in the past, the united states, stands for the strict observance and full implementation of all parts of the four-powered agreement of 1971. let us use this occasion, the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for

the berlin of the future. together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the federal republic and the western sectors of berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement. and i invite mr. gorbachev, let us work to bring the eastern and western parts of the city closer together so that all the inhabitants of all berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the world. [ applause ] to open berlin still further to all europe east and west, let us expand the vital air access to this city, finding ways of making commercial air service to berlin more convenient, more comfortable and more economical.

we look to the day when west berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in all of central europe. [ applause ] with our french and british partners, the united states is prepared to help bring international meetings to berlin. it would be only fitting for berlin to serve as the site of united nations meetings or world conferences on human rights and arms control or other issues that call for international cooperation. [ applause ] there is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges, cultural events and other programs for young berliners from the east. our french and british friends

i'm sure will do the same. it's my hope an authority can be found in east berlin to sponsor visits from young people of the western sectors. [ applause ] one final proposal, one close to my heart, sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement and you may have noted that the republic of korea, south korea, has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 olympics to take place in the north. international sports competitions of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city. and what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer, in some future year, to hold the olympic games here in berlin, east and west. [ applause ]

in these four decades, as i have said, you berliners have built a great city. you've done so in spite of threats, the soviet attempts to impose the east mark, the blockade. today, the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. what keeps you here? certainly, there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. but, i believe there's something deeper, something that involves berlin's whole look and feel and way of life. not mere sentiment. no one could live long in berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. something, instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in berlin but chose to accept them.

that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast with surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. in a word, i would submit that what keeps you in berlin is love. [ applause ] love both profound and abiding. perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between east and west, the totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.

the totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of years ago before the east germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure, the television tower at alexander platts. virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. yet even today, when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. [ applause ] there in berlin, like the city

itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship cannot be suppressed. as i looked out a moment ago from that embodiment of german unity, i noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young berliner. quote, this wall will fall; beliefs become reality. [ applause ] yes, across europe, this wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith, it cannot withstand the truth, the wall cannot withstand freedom. and i would like, before i close, to say one word. i have read and i have been questioned since i've been here about certain demonstrations

against my coming. and i would like to say just one thing. and to those who demonstrate so. i wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they're doing again. [ applause ] thank you. god bless you all. thank you. [ applause ]

the purchasing power of gold specified as a weight unit, for example of any national currency was constant for a period of four centuries. >> it seems to me the record of the gold standard in some is a record by and large of growth and in a macro sense and personal accountability in the banking orma crow sense. >> this weekend on american history tv we look at the origin, departures and arguments for returning to the gold standard, saturday evening just past 7:00 eastern. also this evening more from the contenders. our series on political figures who ran for president but lost but changed political history. charles evans hughes ran against woodrow wilson and the last supreme court justice to be nominated by a major political

party. that's this weekend on c-span 3. this is the conversation we need to have in this country that nobody is willing to have, okay. what role should the government play in housing finance? >> in "reckless endangerment," "new york times" columnist detailed the subprime lending collapse, 2008 financial meltdown and one continuing issue, government subsidized home ownership. >> if you want to subsidize housing in this country and we want to talk about it and the populace agrees it's something we should subsidize, then put it on the balance sheet and make it clear and make it evident and make everybody aware of how much it's costing. but when you deliver it through these third-party enterprises, fannie mae and freddie mac, when you deliver the subsidy through a public company with private shareholders and executives who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves that's not a very good way ever

subsidizing home ownership. we've seen that at the end of that movie in 2008. >> more with gretchen morganson sunday at 8:00. next weekend head to the state capital named in honor of thomas jefferson with book tv and american history tv in jefferson city, missouri. saturday at noon eastern, literary life with book tv on c-span 2, former senator and missouri first lady on family life inside the governor's mansion from her book "if walls could talk." also a butcher's bill, a provisions list from an shent mesopta mimpb a. and sunday at 5:00 p.m. eastern -- >> at one time in 1967 this was called the bloodiest 47 acres in america. >> a warden takes you through

the missouri state penitentiary. and walk through history through the governor's mansion. once a month c-span's local content vehicles explore life in cities across america. next week, jefferson city, missouri. next, on american history tv, former reagan administration chief of staff, kenneth duberstein reflects ronald reagan speech at the berlin wall when he called on gorbachev to tear down this wall. mr. duberstein who was in berlin with president reagan recalls the impact on the end of the cold war. he's interviewed by james did you have chief executive officer of the nuseum. this program is 40 minutes. let's talk about the days leading up to the great speech,

ken, and identify had the good fortune of working with senator baker over the years and he's fond of telling the story that he wanted the line out and drawn through it in a couple of drafts and almost didn't make it in the speech and some of the top advisors were advising against it. set the backdrop for this speech and that line in particular? >> well, howard wasn't the only one who had opposition. when you circulate a presidential speech it goes through something called the interagency clearance process. the state department objected to that one paragraph in the speech. so did on behalf of the state department the national security council in the white house. peter robinson who you just heard from was a hell of a speech writer, age 30, and he was fighting hard for this speech draft. the communications director at the white house agreed with him.

and fought hard against the nsc and the state department. before we left for italy and then germany, we had gone through everybody's arguments and it stayed in the speech. we flew first to venice, because there was an economic summit, a g-7 about to happen. and unlike these days where everything is on the 747 we flew on the old boeing 747 which was air force one. there was a lot of jet lag and time. the reagans flew to venice and went into seclusion for three days where they stayed at a villa outside of venice. we left the united states on june 3rd, on june 5th i visited the villa with the national security council advisor and did

our usual briefings and the president and i spent some time afterwards talking through this speech. and the president said to me, what do you think? and i said, mr. president, i think it's a hell of a speech and a hell of a line but you're president, you get to decide. and he looked at the speech and i looked at the so-called offending paragraph and said well i think we'll leave it in. and that was on june 5th. and on june 6th we flew to the vatican to be with pope john paul ii and then we came back to the villa and then we flew on the venice for the economic summit. and there was still back and forth from the interagency process, the state department. and the day before the speech, george schultz, our wonderful

secretary of state took me aside and said i just want you to know, ken, that i share the department's objection with the speech and with that paragraph and i hope you'll convey my views to the president. and i knew at that very moment the speech and that paragraph was okay. because since i kind of had a handle on the president's calendar, i knew george schultz well enough to know that if he wanted to really object he would have asked me for ten minutes on the president's calendar, but he didn't. so, in other words, he was saying to his bureaucracy, i'm covered and ken if that speech paragraph blows up it's on your shoulders not mine. [ laughter ] let me set the rest of the stage. we went on to berlin. and we met with chancellor cole,

helmut cole who president reagan thought the world of. we met at the old legislature before world war ii. we stood on a balcony that was glass enclosed. facing the berlin wall.wall. helmut kohl pointed out to us, as our secret service pointed out to us, is that anything that was said out in the balcony could be heard by the east germans, by their police because of the sensitivity of the microphones. reagan was confronted. he had been in berlin once before, but he was confronted starkly right in front of us with this mammoth creature called the berlin wall with crosses pointed -- painted on the wall where people had been shot and killed. it was an unbelievably emotional moment. we departed right from there to

the brandenburg gate. i had the honor of being in the limousine with the president, and in these days of teleprompters he was using a prepared speech, not a teleprompter. and everybody refers to him as the great communicator, and part of the reason is that he always rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed, and so one last time he was going through the document, through the speech on his lap in the back of the limousine, and we got to that paragraph, and as peter pointed out, the president turned to me, and said, it's going to drive the state department boys crazy, but we're going to leave that line in. and 20 minutes later the signature line of the eight years of president reagan. but let me also add that in the

day before we arrived in berlin, according to all press reports from the "washington post" and "new york times," helen thomas of the a.p., there had been massive demonstrations in west germany, in west berlin protesting president reagan's visit, protesting our views on disarmament, protesting our policies in the middle east. they had burned down buildings. they had torched cars and so you've got to put that into context as well as we arrived in ber rin. things were quiet, but the night before had been very treacherous. >> peter robinson actually there was an article that appeared in saturday's "wall street journal" by peter, and he mentioned that -- he repeated some of what we saw in the video clips, but he also mentioned that there were no less than seven drafts

that came back from the state department, seven different versions, seven alternative versions to the speech. is that unusual? is that odd or was the speech at its inception viewed as one of such historic importance. >> seven is a bit much. we knew this would be the capstone of the g-7 summit and the visit to the pope which was significant in itself. where was the major news it would have to be in the berlin wall speech? you usually go through two or three drafts, with you they fought it to the very end because they thought it would be provocative, too provocative and would undermine gorbachev's efforts at glasnost and perestroika. as history proved it enhanced

the glasnost andpayer strikea, rather than taking away from that. >> what was the political environment at home at the time? were there motivations to get the president to berlin on the domestic front? were there other things broiling, or was this just a long thought-out strategy of his overall foreign policy and outreach. >> when howard baker and i came to the white house, i came back. he came. president reagan was at 37% in the polls. it was the depths of iran-contra. people were saying of ronald reagan that he was not just a lame duck, he was a dead duck with two years to go in his administration. one of the key strategies that president reagan laid down was that we would try and capture from building up in the first term in our military to somehow

build down in the second term. he had felt that gorbachev in his meetings in geneva and then in reykjavik, which everybody reported at the time was not successful and it turned out to be pivotal, that there was an opportunity for a significant nuclear arms reduction with gorbachev, but his political standing at low was very low, the lowest of his presidency, and it started coming back. three months later was the berlin wall speech where people started recognizing, my god, the united states is back, and the president is going to be that forceful and that direct with the leader of the then soviet union. mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. mr. gorbachev, open the gate. it didn't receive great coverage

in america, but i think the american people understood that their forceful, direct president was about to have a major breakthrough. >> and it did have a tremendous impact certainly in the long run. in the immediate aftermath of it, what was the reaction in germany? and the united states? most of the reaction was that we were a little bit too belligerent, that we had maybe taken some steps to undermine gorbachev and his efforts at glasnost andpayer strikea, that we were on tender soil, but it fit in very much with the ronald reagan of the evil empire on the one hand, and on the other hand let's hold out some hope. if you look at the whole speech, it is one of hope and liberalization and trust and

encouragement and standing together in this fight against totalitarianism. this is not supposed to, and wasn't what we thought a provocative speech but rather one that held out an olive branch. if you truly want liberalization, if you're truly serious, it's not just gestures. it's meaningful change. then the one thing that you can do is come here to this wall. tear down this wall. >> it's interesting that the line appeared in the middle of the speech, and it was a long speech actually. it was a very lengthy speech. >> well, if -- you can't roll the tape again obviously, but if you saw the tape. after he says open this gate, and there's big applause, and he says, mr. gorbachev, and here's the training of the actor. because it was being swallowed

up by applause, he started again so that he could get the whole line, not drowned out, and so it was mr. gorbachev -- applause-mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. and the place erupted. that's the actor's training of ronald reagan. >> he was a great communicator. >> absolutely. >> there are other great lines in the speech, and i -- i brought a copy of it with me. i've been sort of overlooked over time because of the power of that great line. this is not an original copy, by the way, so our curators don't need to worry. we got this off the internet, but he -- the penultimate paragraph of the speech. he says, as i look out a moment from the reichstag, that embodiment of german unity, i noticed words crudely spraypainted upon the wall, perhaps by a young berliner.

this wall will fall. beliefs become reality, end of the quote on the wall. yes, across europe this wall will fall for it cannot withstand faith. it cannot withstand truth, and the wall cannot withstand freedom. >> those are great lines. >> absolutely. >> and yet sort of lost in history in a way because of the power of the tear down this wall line. >> jim, you know, president reagan also was aware that the speech was being broadcast all over germany, including in east berlin, and we had set up loudspeakers so that anybody could get anywhere near close to the berlin wall in east berlin could hear the speech. so reagan knew that he was speaking to all of eastern europe, all of western europe, and this was his moment, and this was