Statue

{A large plaque in front of the statue:}

"No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, 1981-1989.
First Inaugural Address, Washington D.C., January 1981.

*****

RONALD REAGAN, the 40th President of the United States of America, was a principled fighter for freedom. With a clear vision and will, he gave hope to the oppressed and shamed the oppressors.  His contribution to the world history in the 20th century culminated in his determined intervention to end the Cold War. President Reagan has left a lasting legacy as a campaigner for global peace.

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"With the lever of American patriotism, he lifted up the world. And so today, in Prague, in Budapest, in Warsaw and Sofia, in Bucharest, in Kiev and in Moscow itself, the world celebrates the life of the great liberator."
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister 1979-1990.

"With President Reagan, we travelled the road from confrontation to co-operation. I join in the tribute to this remarkable man and salute him."
Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985-1991 (President 1990-1991). 

"I recall with deep gratitude the late President's unwavering commitment … to the cause of freedom as well as his abiding faith in the human and spiritual values which ensure a future of solidarity, justice and peace in our world."
Pope John Paul II, Pontificate 1978-2005.

"We owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989."
Lech Walensa, President of Poland 1990-1995.

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"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
Ronald Reagan, Brandenburg Gate speech, West Berlin, June 1987.

{A section of concrete (with no graffiti) artfully held in with sculpted bronze barbed wire, with a small inserted plaque:}
Fragment of the BERLIN WALL taken from the East side.

{The main plaque continues:}
The Berlin Wall symbolised the Cold war in its division of East and West.

The City had been divided by Soviet troops on 13th August 1961, when overnight a barricade of barbed wire coils and concrete posts was built along the 28.5 mile border between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. It was later replaced by a concrete wall with watchtower patrols. Berlin was a western enclave in the middle of the Soviet controlled East Germany, and considered crucially important to N.A.T.O.

The building of the wall was authorised by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, following political tension between him and U.S. president John F. Kennedy. The instability of the Cold War had created vast migration from the G.D.R. The wall created human tragedy for Berliners, but war was avoided and West Berlin had been saved.

The Berlin Wall remained in place for 28 years and was finally demolished on 9th November 1989, thereby peacefully uniting Germany and liberating Eastern Europe. The reunification of Germany and Berlin took place on 3rd October 1990.

*****

In 1989 President Reagan was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen with the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

{On another, lower, bronze plaque:}
Unveiled on the 4th of July 2011 by

The Rt. Hon. William Hague MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Dr Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State 2005 - 2009
The Honorable and Mrs Louis B. Susman, US Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s
The Honorable Kevin McCarthy, United States House Majority Whip
The Honorable and Mrs Robert H. Tuttle, US Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s 2005 - 2009
The Honorable Frederick L. Ryan, Jr., Chairman of the Board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation
In the presence of
The Family of the Honorable John J. Louis, Jr., US Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s 1981 - 1988
The Family of the Honorable Charles H. Price II, Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s 1988 - 1989
Mrs Jennie M. Elias, Chairman of the Trustees of the President Reagan Memorial Fund Trust U.K. 

This memorial was endowed by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the President Reagan Memorial Fund Trust UK and others including Rupert Murdoch, Meg Davis Allen, Vernon W. Hill II and the Family of Ambassador John J. Louis, Jr.

Sculptor Chas Fagan
Architect Donald Insall Associates