Kennedy gave a speech in 1963 in front of a crowd at the Rudolph Wilde Platz. In 1987, President Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg gate. I think Kennedy and Reagan's speeches share a common purpose because the use of rhetoric in both of their speeches. The two speeches share a sole purpose and that is to take down the Berlin Wall. Kennedy's attitude towards the Berlin Wall is that the Berlin Wall must be taken down to give freedom to the people. The wall shows the evil and the failure of communism. Reagan mentions, "Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, and prevent them from leaving us" (Kennedy, paragraph 6). In that quote Kennedy shows that the wall does not create freedom. He also compares Germany against America; free against not free. Ronald Reagan has a common outlook on the Berlin Wall like Kennedy. Reagan is all for freedom but he says that President Vonweizsacker isn't being fair and is overlooking people's personal rights. He shows this idea in the quote ". it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom of all mankind" (Reagan, paragraph 6). Reagan feels that Berlin is a great country but the wall is limiting their freedom. Reagan wants the wall to be torn down as a way to show that they really want freedom. The wall is holding them back from the freedom they want. He gives the order to Mr. Gorbschev in the quote, "Mr. Gorbshev -- Mr. Gorbshev, tear down this wall!" (Reagan,paragraph 15). The common purpose between the two speeches is the wall needs to be teared down to create freedom. .
Kennedy and Reagan both used the same rhetoric devices and repetition within their speeches. In President Kennedy's speech, he repeated "Let them come to Berlin" and "Ich bin ein Berliner", which translates to "I am a Berliner" (Kennedy, paragraph 5,10).
