![]() ![]() ![]() Just days before the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the president made a historic visit to Kyiv. Ukraine Must Not Be Allowed to Join NATOĪlmost 60 years later, in February 2023, President Biden adopted a similar strategy.In fact, it was Kennedy's deliberate placement-and the way the president deployed the symbolism of West Berlin as a rhetorical resource-that made all the difference. To be sure, the president's oratorical performance at the Rudolph Wilde Platz was memorable and gripping, but to focus exclusively on Kennedy's verbal address is to miss a crucial aspect of the story. In June 1963-less than two years after the Berlin Wall went up-Kennedy and his advisors understood that seeing and being seen in West Berlin was as important as his speech itself. Such was the case with JFK's visit to West Berlin. Where the president went-or chose not to go-made manifest what certain places or regions meant for U.S. officials also deployed the president's own body as a way to demarcate the boundaries of American influence abroad. While many recall the Cold War as one that was waged with words and images, U.S. and the PRC after 22 years of no contact. Richard Nixon shocked the world when, in July 1971, he announced that he would visit the People's Republic of China (PRC) to formalize diplomatic relations between the U.S. political and psychological influence in the region. In early 1960, as Eisenhower administration officials fretted over what to do about Fidel Castro's rise in Cuba, the president embarked a 10-day tour of South America designed to reassert U.S. These visits increased exponentially during the Cold War. Images of the "Big Three"-with FDR in the middle chair-became symbolic of Allied unity against Axis powers. During the Second World War, Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Tehran and Yalta to meet with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. At the conclusion of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson went to Versailles to broker a peace deal. Ever since Theodore Roosevelt's travel to the Panama Canal Zone in 1906, chief executives have used their international travels to expand the United States' geopolitical, military, and ideological influence abroad while also reminding the U.S. presidents often invoke place as an argumentative strategy. Kennedy's visit to West Berlin also provides a striking example of how U.S. Kennedy at Check Point Charlie during his tour of West Germany in 1963. Part of this is due to popular lore, such as the humorous but inaccurate story that Kennedy had declared himself to be a jelly doughnut (known by some as a "Berliner"). The text of the president's address also continues to fascinate. Images of Kennedy peering over the Berlin Wall, visiting Checkpoint Charlie, and speaking to thousands of West Berliners packed into the Rudolph Wilde Platz highlight the stark divide between East and West. Sixty years later, Kennedy's visit to West Berlin remains an iconic moment in U.S. commitment to democracy would be tested-and, ultimately, where the Soviet hold on Eastern Europe would begin to crumble, brick by brick. support to his immediate audience, they also reminded the American public of why West Berlin mattered in the larger Cold War contest. To West Berliners who lived under the shadow of Soviet encroachment, the president offered assurances that "all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin." Not only did Kennedy's remarks underscore U.S. ![]() Standing before a crowd of thousands, he declared that "today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner'" ("I am a Berliner"). Kennedy set foot in West Berlin on June 26, 1963, his presence crystalized the city's iconic status as a "defended island of freedom" on the Cold War world stage. ![]()
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