John F. Kennedy's symbolic rhetoric at the Berlin Wall

1 John F. Kennedy’s Speech at the Berlin Wall, 1961 Kennedy’s speech at the Berlin Wall came in the midst in the Cold War between the Soviets and the Americans. The Berlin Wall was a symbol that represented the divide between the two nations as well as the ideological gap that separated them. The Soviets and the U.S. had been allies during WW2 against Germany, but now there was a deep divide and distrust between the two countries. The Americans had demonstrated their nuclear capabilities over Japan at the end of the War, essentially guaranteeing that a nuclear arms race would be ushered in, and the Soviets distrusted the West’s Marshall Plan and the ensuing push by the intelligence community (chief among them being the CIA) to establish outposts all throughout Europe in an attempt to keep tabs on Soviet satellites and to influence elections, as they did in Italy and elsewhere throughout the Cold War (Morley, 2017). In the midst of this distrust, the Allies had separated Germany into four zones with France taking control of Germany’s southwest, the U.S. taking the south, the English controlling the northwest, and the Soviets occupying the whole of the eastern half. The main divide ran through the city of Berlin, and Berlin was thus pulled in two different directions—the East towards Communism, the West towards the U.S. and its notions of liberty and capitalism. Tensions mounted almost immediately. The Soviets, for example, tried to blockade West Berlin in 1948 (feeling that all of Berlin should be theirs), and it took an Allied airlift to thwart the Soviet plan. In the face of what it perceived to be Western opposition, the Soviets tightened their control over East Berlin. Millions of Germans began fleeing to the West to escape the Soviet crackdown. By 1961, when Kennedy visited the Berlin Wall, more than a thousand Germans were trying to escape from Soviet controlled Germany every day (History, 2018). In Kennedy’s speech at the Berlin Wall, he first made it a point to identify West Berlin as a symbol of the Western political values—such as “freedom,” “progress,” and “democracy”—all terms used specifically by Kennedy in his opening remarks. Acknowledging these values at the Wall gave the implication that on the other side of the wall, these values were not shared—that on the other side of wall, society was regressing under the Soviets instead of progressing, that democracy and liberty were not prized in the East. Then Kennedy stated that in ancient times, the proudest boast a person could make was to say that he was a Roman citizen; “today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’”—I am a Berlin citizen, Kennedy (1961). By identifying as a Berliner, Kennedy was expressing solitude with the people of Germany and showing that America was going to continue to push its cause in West Berlin. He wanted to lay a stake of moral claim in Germany and use it to wield the first blow against the Soviet Union. Kennedy was taking a politically hostile stance towards the Soviets—and this stance would escalate tensions that would lead later to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the showdown between the East and the West in America’s own backyard. The Soviet’s relationship with Germany at this time was tense, as it was with the West. The Soviets had crushed Germany in the war and now it felt that it must crush the spirit of the Germans in order to compel them to follow Soviet rule. The conditions were harsh and the Germans saw the American occupied side as being more inviting. Kennedy wanted to embellish this impression, which is why he went to the Wall to give his speech. He wanted to show that the West was the better of the two choices. He excoriated Communism in his speech and dared those who say that Communism is good to come to Berlin and see how “good” it is for themselves. For those who had accused Kennedy of being soft on Communism, this speech was meant to address those concerns. Kennedy did not mince words: he stated plainly that “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” (Kennedy, 1961). This showed to his political opponents back home that he was not soft on Communism but was rather going to take a strong, visible stance against the Soviets and their expansionist policies. The significance of this speech was that it confirmed the U.S.’s opposition to Soviet Communism not just politically but also ideologically and practically as well. Kennedy’s rhetoric and use of rhetorical devices—like identifying as a Berliner—was a sounding board meant to launch a full-scale cultural attack on the ethos of Soviet Communism. The speech served to undermine the international support of the Soviets among Western allies (while at the same time uniting those who opposed the Western Imperialists with the Soviets—such as was the case in Cuba, where Castro openly invited the Soviets to place missile silos to aim at the U.S.).