{"id":1624,"date":"2019-11-06T15:44:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T20:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2019-11-13T16:05:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T21:05:08","slug":"reagans-soft-diplomacy-contributed-to-the-falling-of-the-berlin-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/reagans-soft-diplomacy-contributed-to-the-falling-of-the-berlin-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Reagan’s Soft Diplomacy contributed to the falling of the Berlin Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As we mark the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall on Saturday and President Reagan\u2019s now iconic words, \u201cMr. Gorbachev tear down this wall\u201d- It is important to remember the collapse of the Soviet Union did not happen overnight or just with that powerful speech. Behind the scenes the Reagans were also strategically engaging in \u201csocial” or “soft” diplomacy to help end the Cold War. In my upcoming book \u201cEntertaining at the White House: Decades of Presidential Traditions,\u201d available in December, I highlight how President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan used this social diplomacy to their advantage through the hundreds of social events and dinners at the White House. One of the best examples is the State Dinner in honor of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President and Mrs. Reagan entered into the White House as\nseasoned pros when it came to political entertaining. Before becoming President\nof the United States, Reagan led the Screen Actors Guild prior to being elected\nGovernor of California so both he and Mrs. Reagan were accustomed to hosting\nand attending important social events involving celebrities, diplomats, and\nheads of state. During their years at the White House Mrs. Reagan infused every White\nHouse event with a level of strategic sophistication that had not been seen in\nyears because they knew the power of this type of soft diplomacy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although all State Dinners\nare historically important, the 1987 dinner for Soviet President Mikhail\nGorbachev was one of the most internationally significant of the Reagan\nadministration.  President Reagan\u2019s\nability to  charm and change minds\nthrough subtle influence were put to the test. The dinner would symbolize the\nthawing of the Cold War and solidify a new, positive relationship between the\nUnited States and the Soviet Union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given\nthe enormous anticipation of the Gorbachev Summit this State Dinner became one\nof the most coveted White House invitations to receive.  Mrs. Reagan recalled in her memoirs, \u201cFor me\nthe main event of the Washington Summit was the State Dinner for the\nGorbachevs, which was my responsibility. State dinners are always grand occasions,\nbut this one promised to be especially exciting, and everyone was clamoring for\nan invitation.\u201d The\nguests were just not selections from the best of America but also believers in\nthe Reagan international philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 8,\n1987 at 7:10 p.m., the Gorbachevs arrived in a Russian-made Zil limousine\ngreeted by the Reagans at the South Portico. Protocol and diplomacy play an\neven greater role when a dinner takes place during a major summit and\neverything was perfectly executed including the words during the toast https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1QwxOvI72_E, ”We cannot afford to rest.  There is a great deal more to be done and\ntime and history are marching on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most thoughtful\nmoments of the evening was the entertainment. \nThe White House called on the first American to win the prestigious\nTchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, renowned pianist Van Cliburn to perform.  The pianist hadn\u2019t given a live performance\nin nine years, but made an exception for this momentous occasion.  For the encore, Cliburn played something he\nknew the Soviet delegation would appreciate: \u201cMoscow Nights,\u201d that he had\nlearned during his 1958 visit to Russia. The Soviets sang along as he played.\nPresident Gorbachev even hugged and kissed the pianist at the end he was so\nmoved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Second Lady, Lynne\nCheney, then-head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who attended\nwith her husband, future Vice President Dick Cheney said in The New York Times.\n\u201cThis evening involves two superpowers, and it is a night that is looking very\nmuch to the future.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reagan charm offensive\nhad paid off and social diplomacy proved effective. \u201cPresident Gorbachev and my\nhusband had a certain chemistry that helped improve relations,\u201d Mrs. Reagan\nwrote. \u201cTheir friendship continued even after both had left office.\u201d That\nchemistry helped end the Cold War \u2014 and it lasted a lifetime. 17 years later,\nat the state funeral of Ronald Reagan, sat his former foe turned friend,\nMikhail Gorbachev. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Boswell Pickens is a White House East Wing historian with expertise in White House traditions, social events and first ladies. She is a public speaker and <\/em>author of three books<\/em><\/a>, \u201c<\/em>Christmas at the White House\u201d and \u201c<\/em>Pets at the White House,\u201d and <\/em>\u201cEntertaining at the White House: Decades of Presidential Traditions.\u201d Follow Jennifer on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we mark the 30th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall on Saturday and President Reagan\u2019s now iconic words, \u201cMr. Gorbachev tear down this wall\u201d- It is important to remember the collapse of the Soviet Union did not happen overnight or just with that powerful speech. Behind the scenes the Reagans were also… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,25,33,20,22],"class_list":["post-1624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-white-house-wednesdays","tag-entertainingatthewhitehouse","tag-whitehouse","tag-whitehousehistory","tag-whitehousetraditions","tag-whitehousewednesdays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}