The Man Behind the Fall of the Wall

IT’S ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS LINES OF THE 20TH CENtury: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Almost everyone knows who gave the speech in which the line occurred (President Ronald Reagan), where it was delivered (West Berlin, Germany) and that it marked the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union in 1987. Less well known is the man who wrote those words: Peter Robinson.

The English major was hired after graduation as chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush for a year and a half and then joined Reagan’s staff. He wrote more than 1,000 speeches before he walked away from speechwriting when Reagan left the White House in 1989. Sitting in his office at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where he’s been a fellow since 1993, Robinson says his reasoning was simple. “Having worked with Reagan,” he says, “everyone else was going to be a letdown.”

He still follows political speech makers—“[Sen. Marco] Rubio is the best I’ve heard since Reagan,” he says—but nowadays Robinson is more interested in current events. He blogs on the conservative website Ricochet.com and conducts the Hoover Institution’s online video series, Uncommon Knowledge. The series features Robinson’s in-depth interviews with leading academics, businessmen and politicians such as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

He’s also engaged in the life of the College, as a former trustee and parent of Edita ’13, Pedro ’15, Nico ’17 and Andrew ’19. In a world where technology has transformed the way students learn and communicate, he’s delighted Dartmouth remains “a community of scholars.” “Just as the fundamental act of speaking has not changed,” he says, “the act of teaching cannot be replaced.”