the wall separated more than a city. it separated the world. on one side lived people who were free to be christians or muslims, buddhists, hindus, jews or confucians. on june 26th, a short distance from the wall and overlooking the east -- the people of west berlin welcomed a visitor, the president of the united states of america. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> kennedy!

kennedy! kennedy! kennedy! kennedy! >> thank you. 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 that communism is the wave of the future. let them come to berlin!

and there are even a few who say that it's true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. [ speaking german ] let them come to berlin. freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect. but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in. to prevent them from leaving us. to prevent them from leavin us. 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, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. freedom is indivisible. and when one man is enslaved,

all are now free. all free men, wherever they live, are citizens of berlin. and therefore, as a free man, i take pride in the words -- [ speaking german ]

24 years after president kennedy went to the berlin wall, president reagan followed in his footsteps and delivered his own rhetorical and political challenge to the soviet union on june 12, 1987. just two years later the wall came back. we continue our look back 25 years to the november 9th, 1989 fall of the berlin wall and the events that preceded the end of the cold war.