speeches by amb. coats

Mayor Band,

Mayor Wowereit,

Mr. Hanna,

Berlin was once a symbol of division. Throughout the long years of the Cold War, images and words engraved themselves in the hearts and minds of two generations -- the steady stream of airplanes feeding Berlin during the Airlift; American and Soviet tanks in a face-off at Checkpoint Charlie; the Berlin Wall - a killing zone marked by concrete and barbed wire; the dramatic words of reassurance offered to Berliners by President John F. Kennedy; President Reagan's challenge to the Soviet Union at the Brandenburg Gate.

For the world, but especially for Germans and Americans, Berlin was more than a symbol of division. It was also a symbol of commitment and trust.

Nowhere else was the evidence of a common purpose and common values -- freedom, justice and democracy -- more obvious.

That was President Kennedy's message when he visited Berlin that June day, forty years ago. All free men, he said, were citizens of Berlin wherever they might live. Real, lasting peace in Europe could never be assured as long as one German out of four was denied the basic right of making a free choice.

"Ich bin ein Berliner." With those words, President Kennedy prophesied the day when Berlin -- East and West -- would be joined as one, a symbol no longer of division, but one of unity and of hope.

The commitment of the United States to the protection of West Berlin and to the promise of German unity was unwavering -- over four long decades.

Today the threats of the Cold War are behind us. But the century ahead holds new and equally great challenges. We must find the strength to find renewed meaning in President Kennedy's message of common purpose, of unity and hope, the message that meant so much to Berliners, to Germans, to Americans, to the world, four decades ago.