I was reading this article about the 20th anniversary of the famous Reagan speech "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall". Even reading it today gives me the chills. Has it been 20 years already??

The author opines subtly that it is possible that the wall would have come down with or without the speech. He suggests that the speech was nothing more than "well-timed and inspiring".

Forgive me, but isn't that the point of a presidential Address? Maybe the author is right. However, we all know that the wall did come down, that the USSR did get dissolved 4 years later, that the number of un-free regimes decreased, and that there was a 30% increase in democratic nations after this event.

So maybe it was just inspiring, but inspiration moves people, and when people are moved, the future changes. History proves that.