John F. Kennedy
The 35th president of the United States (1961-1963)

Inaugural Address

In his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, Kennedy declared that the United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

“Ich bin ein Berliner”

In 1961, the Soviets erected the Berlin Wall to separate off the western section of the city. Two years later Kennedy delivered this address on June 26, demanding that all those who claimed not to understand what the “great issue” was between the free world and the communist world should come to Berlin. He described the wall as the “most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system.” Indeed, President Ronald Reagan consciously echoed Kennedy when he visited the city in 1987 and demanded that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall.”