“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 some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that Communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.”
If an American president today gave the equivalent of the above passage from President John F. Kennedy’s speech in Berlin, he would be denounced as a provocative warmonger, especially in those portions of Europe that were not liberated by the fall of Communism. Notice that Kennedy described Communism as an "evil system." When President Reagan later referred to the Soviet Union, which was both evil and an empire, as an "evil empire," some critics came unglued.
[HT: Arts & Letters Daily ]
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