A primary resource featured in Norton’s Western Civilizations textbook, authored by Joshua Cole and Carol Stymes.

To quote Norton’s digital version of the text:

On January 8, 1918, the U.S. president Woodrow Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech before a joint session of the United States Congress. The Fourteen Points ultimately became the blueprint for European peace implicit in the Treaty of Versailles. The speech called for free trade, open covenants of peace, democracy, and the self-determination of all nations. Copies of the speech were dropped behind German lines in order to urge the Central Powers to surrender.

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After the U.S. got involved in the Great War, Wilson and his administration felt the need to outline goals of their post-war negotiations, including:

• free trade
• the spread of democracy
• self-determination, and
• open agreements

President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” speech on June 26, 1963 in West Berlin to a crowd of 450,000. Aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Through its expression of solidarity with West Germany, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” became known as one of JFK’s most famous speeches – as well as an incredibly important speech to West Germans.

The famous phrase from which the speech gets its name – “Ich bin ein Berliner” – in part was inspired by a speech Kennedy gave at a Civic Reception in New Orleans on May 4, 1962. He used the phrase “civis Romanus sum” in a similar context, saying: “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was to say, ‘I am a citizen of Rome.’ Today, I believe, in 1962 the proudest boast is to say, ‘I am a citizen of the United States.’”

JFK’s handwritten notes with the phonetic pronunciation of “Ich bin ein Berliner”