Ronald Reagan's Speech On Capitalism And Communism

Reagan's speech was delivered to crowd of thousands while at the Berlin Wall to order Gorbachev bring the wall down to protect citizens freedoms. By arguing against the wall, the president would be able to repress communism which is what George Kennan attempted to do with his idea of containment during the Cold War for the Soviet Union. When Reagan made his speech, he meant to explain to the citizens of Berlin that although the Berlin Wall may create some peace within communism and capitalism, it does not allow full freedom to anyone whether in Berlin or the world in general.

Communism portrays the idea that everyone should be equal whether it drags down the entire economy or not while capitalism extends their beliefs to see it as almost social darwinism to which only the strongest and the best survive. Although these two ideas are polar opposites from each other, there are some countries in the present day that have proven the existence of capitalism and communism coexisting by using characteristics from both but never with an equal symmetrical balance. One example of a nation that has proven to be able to bring both ideologies together is Nepal because even though Nepal can be considered to be a capitalist nation, they also manifest traits of communism such as their usage of free markets thus making it a nation capable of using capitalism and communism. To a greater degree communism and capitalism can live peacefully in a smaller section of area such as small communist parties in a capitalist nation however, to a lesser degree they can not coexist because their values and proposals completely contrast each other with there not being a good balance as one side will always have more influence.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee would have awarded Gorbachev over Reagan because of the fact that he was the one in charge of the process but also because of his incorporation of notions like perestroika and glasnost. Glasnost was used by Gorbachev in the form of a political motto which complied to the openness of a society, specifically in Soviet Russia, that promoted freedom of the press as well as the freedom of speech which prompted the committee members to award Gorbachev with the prize due to his actions towards giving Russia the chance to use new amendments. Another idea adhered by Gorbachev was the principle of perestroika which sought to reintroduce private enterprises in order to give the russian economy a launch into new wealth making a the big change that Russia needed after the previous wars.Through the use of concepts such as perestroika and glasnost, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize instead of Reagan due to his successful and conflict-free process of ending the Cold War.