Brandenburg Gate Speech

This image shows President Reagan delivering a powerful speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 whereby he demands the soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to 'tear down' the Berlin Wall. 23 months later the wall fell and Germany was finally reunified with itself. The flags of America and West Germany reflect the unity against the Soviet Union's totalitarian system which soon ended after the Berlin wall fell.

This is perhaps one of the most iconic images on an international scale in the 1980s rather than just American because it  is a speech during the Cold War, a war that affected so many countries across the world. The speech is certainly just as iconic as the image as it reflected American dominance and how the Soviet Union was close to collapsing. Reagan's smooth talking tone as an orator reflects this. He was brilliant at being able to capture peoples attention and ensuring that their concentration was kept as seen in the image which displays the Mayor of Berlin and other government officials of West Germany and America. This could also be seen as a rather sentimental image for people who were thankful towards Reagan and his ability to hold decisive negotiations with Gorbachev after this speech, which in turn led to the fall of the Berlin wall and love ones being able to finally see each other again.