1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,920
Speaker 1: staff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,560
Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson, joined as usual by staff writer

4
00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,800
Speaker 1: Josh Clark, County Candice Hey. So, Candice, I was perusing

5
00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:26,079
Speaker 1: the my favorite news sites. I won't mention any of them,

6
00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:29,240
Speaker 1: but UM, I found that there was a little article

7
00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:32,440
Speaker 1: about a guy named Graham Pierce who retired from the

8
00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:35,120
Speaker 1: Dallas Police Force at the end of July. Have you

9
00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,720
Speaker 1: heard of this guy? Yeah? Well, UM, normally you wouldn't find,

10
00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 1: you know, um, articles in national newspapers about retiring police

11
00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,120
Speaker 1: officers from Dallas. But the thing that made this guy's

12
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,520
Speaker 1: retirement significant was he was the last uh Dallas Police

13
00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:53,680
Speaker 1: force officer. UM, Dallas police officer who was on the

14
00:00:53,720 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 1: force when JFK was assassinated in nineteen sixty three in Dallas. UM,

15
00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,440
Speaker 1: so of course it's going to make you know, headlines

16
00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,400
Speaker 1: here there. I think that it did make the fact

17
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,400
Speaker 1: that it did make headlines, UH couldn't have been more

18
00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:13,000
Speaker 1: of a godsend for the Barack Obama campaign. UM. Just

19
00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:17,120
Speaker 1: four days earlier, Obama was in Berlin giving a speech

20
00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:22,240
Speaker 1: to like twenty thou Berliners, UM, about how we can't

21
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,160
Speaker 1: allow walls to be erected among the people's of of uh,

22
00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:28,480
Speaker 1: you know, the West and the world, and we have

23
00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,120
Speaker 1: to fight things like a terrorism and global warming together

24
00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:36,759
Speaker 1: rather than separately. He was warning against isolationism and obviously

25
00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:41,759
Speaker 1: speaking in favor of globalization. UM. And the reason Obama

26
00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,920
Speaker 1: chose Berlin, and the reason his camp would be very

27
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,240
Speaker 1: very happy that this Dallas police officer retired just a

28
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,960
Speaker 1: couple of days later, was because Barack Obama loves to

29
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:58,280
Speaker 1: be compared to JFK, another young American president exactly the

30
00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,440
Speaker 1: works wait exactly right with young kids, which is another

31
00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:07,080
Speaker 1: another comparison. Um. So Obama chose Berlin to give this

32
00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,000
Speaker 1: to give this speech because Kennedy had done it in

33
00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,280
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. UM. And he did it right next

34
00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:18,400
Speaker 1: to the Berlin Wall, which was this very literal dividing

35
00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: line between East and West, communism and right and uh,

36
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,239
Speaker 1: you know, freedom and tyranny depending on on your view

37
00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:31,000
Speaker 1: or your opinion or where you were born. Um. And

38
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,040
Speaker 1: what Kennedy was saying when he gave that speech was

39
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,360
Speaker 1: that you know, there's this wall here and and the

40
00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:44,000
Speaker 1: East Germans erected it but America would stand behind the

41
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,120
Speaker 1: West Germans and the rest of the free world. And

42
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,280
Speaker 1: if if they the Communists, came across this wall, they

43
00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:53,000
Speaker 1: would not only be messing with Germany, they would be

44
00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,400
Speaker 1: messing with America too. And in front of a hundred

45
00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 1: thousand Berliners. Uh. He ended his speech very famously with

46
00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:04,679
Speaker 1: each being I am beer leaner, right, my Germans a

47
00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:07,840
Speaker 1: little rusty. But I've heard along the way in my

48
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,600
Speaker 1: thirty two years that he actually said, not I am

49
00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:17,520
Speaker 1: a Berliner, but I am a jelly donut. Um is

50
00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:19,959
Speaker 1: that fact or fiction? Please put this to rest, because

51
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,440
Speaker 1: I've heard it before, and I've heard both sides. What

52
00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:25,560
Speaker 1: what are you saying? It's sort of a sticky subject.

53
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,400
Speaker 1: Now put on the jelly donut. But I think anytime

54
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,520
Speaker 1: you're dissecting and interpreting a political figure speech, they're going

55
00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,200
Speaker 1: to be people who interpret it different ways. And to

56
00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,840
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest, I mean, you could say that that

57
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,400
Speaker 1: is a fact. He did say he was a jelly donut,

58
00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,480
Speaker 1: but I'm going to lean toward decide that it's fiction.

59
00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,400
Speaker 1: And then he didn't actually say it's a jelly donut.

60
00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:53,040
Speaker 1: So this comment essentially it wasn't even something that Kennedy wrote.

61
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,480
Speaker 1: You know, most presidents have speech writers, and his was

62
00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:59,600
Speaker 1: Ted Sorenson, who in his memoir actually said, you know,

63
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:01,760
Speaker 1: I can't believe I put that in there. We were

64
00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:05,240
Speaker 1: trying to coach Kennedy on how to make that uvuler are.

65
00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,480
Speaker 1: It's sort of a hard sound to make. And as

66
00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:11,680
Speaker 1: we all know, Kennedy had a pretty uh well known

67
00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:15,200
Speaker 1: Boston accent, and so he actually the reason he said

68
00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,840
Speaker 1: is instead of ike was because he had trouble saying

69
00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,840
Speaker 1: ike uh. And he went with the Bavarian, which was

70
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,800
Speaker 1: apparently a little easier for him because of that very

71
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,919
Speaker 1: that Boston exciting Yeah. And and if you listen to

72
00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:31,760
Speaker 1: any of Kennedy's speeches or commentaries on the radio that

73
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,200
Speaker 1: he made during his lifetime, he dropped his arms quite

74
00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:36,159
Speaker 1: a bit, and this was sort of a bad time

75
00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:40,440
Speaker 1: to drop your R. There you have it. So the

76
00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:43,919
Speaker 1: jelly donut in question, let's let's conquer this first. The

77
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:48,080
Speaker 1: Berliner Essentially, this is a German pastry. It's sort of

78
00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:50,000
Speaker 1: like a jelly donut. It could also be called a

79
00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:54,280
Speaker 1: Berliner balin. And this isn't the only item of food

80
00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:58,360
Speaker 1: that is named after a city you've heard of Frankfurter's right. Certainly,

81
00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,719
Speaker 1: there you have it. It's not uncommon in Germany for

82
00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:03,760
Speaker 1: things to be named after towns. And Rice Erroney is

83
00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:08,440
Speaker 1: the San Francisco treat that too, indeed. Um, But essentially,

84
00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:11,000
Speaker 1: he wasn't saying I'm a jelly donut. He's saying I'm

85
00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,760
Speaker 1: one of you. And there's a couple of sticky issues

86
00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:19,440
Speaker 1: with that. Again, back to the sticky jelly. It's to

87
00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,800
Speaker 1: say it literally would be I'm a resident of Berlin,

88
00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:26,320
Speaker 1: but he was trying to say it more colloquially or

89
00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,159
Speaker 1: more figuratively, I am one of you. You know, we

90
00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,240
Speaker 1: are one of this body. We're in this together. And

91
00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:35,200
Speaker 1: when it came out, he actually said this a couple

92
00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:37,120
Speaker 1: of times in his speech. It wasn't just at the end,

93
00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:39,080
Speaker 1: he said at the beginning. In fact, when he came

94
00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:40,960
Speaker 1: up to the podium to make the speech and there

95
00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,520
Speaker 1: was such a thunderous applause and ovation that he couldn't

96
00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:47,279
Speaker 1: even begin until a couple of minutes after the crowd

97
00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,880
Speaker 1: of one thousand had calmed down, And so he said

98
00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:52,840
Speaker 1: it a couple of times, and essentially what he was

99
00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:57,160
Speaker 1: implying with that back in ancient civilization. The great civilization

100
00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,679
Speaker 1: to belong to would be the Romans, and today it's

101
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,160
Speaker 1: the Berliner's. You know, to be one of you, to

102
00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:07,720
Speaker 1: stand for democracy in a world that's been essentially, you know,

103
00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:11,240
Speaker 1: surrounded by communist forces, it's a very brave thing and

104
00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:13,000
Speaker 1: I'm proud to be one of you. And the crowd

105
00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,560
Speaker 1: was very receptive of the sentiment. And perhaps there were

106
00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,000
Speaker 1: a couple of people who twittered, but I think they

107
00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:23,520
Speaker 1: appreciated that the US was there to help, but not

108
00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,920
Speaker 1: only the US also um France and Britain were part

109
00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:31,440
Speaker 1: of this too. But the people who may have laughed,

110
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,600
Speaker 1: And the reason that documentation exists is that there were

111
00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:37,200
Speaker 1: some negative feelings towards JFK, and that has to do

112
00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:39,599
Speaker 1: with the erection of the wall itself. It was really

113
00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:44,559
Speaker 1: really spooky the night of August twelfth one, the lights

114
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,040
Speaker 1: went out in East Berlin and when people woke up

115
00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:51,279
Speaker 1: there was a barbed wire fence separating East Berlin from

116
00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:53,600
Speaker 1: West Berlin. And before then, you know, there have been

117
00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:57,120
Speaker 1: guard station to try to keep people from defecting over

118
00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,200
Speaker 1: to the west side, and that was because it was

119
00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,160
Speaker 1: becoming an anonomical problem for the communist rule. People were leaving,

120
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,000
Speaker 1: they couldn't support society. I can't imagine that there were

121
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,800
Speaker 1: too many West Germans flooding into East Germany through Berlin.

122
00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:12,880
Speaker 1: Not so much. It would be sort of like I

123
00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:14,640
Speaker 1: don't even know, I can't even make an analogy. I'm

124
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,280
Speaker 1: gonna stop right there. But when the wall there we go.

125
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:19,119
Speaker 1: When the wall and up, it was just a barbed

126
00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,720
Speaker 1: wire fence, and then progressively it grew into this big

127
00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:27,680
Speaker 1: concrete bastion with checkpoints and guns and tubes on tops

128
00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 1: of people couldn't crawl over, and guard station everywhere, people

129
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,920
Speaker 1: couldn't tunnel under. But when it went up that night

130
00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:36,800
Speaker 1: of Office twelve, when the world woke up, suddenly there

131
00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,720
Speaker 1: was and JFK was taken aback as anyone else it wasn't.

132
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,400
Speaker 1: Everyone just completely caught off guard by this. There was

133
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:47,080
Speaker 1: no announcement of these plans. It just walls up. It

134
00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,640
Speaker 1: just happened. And a couple of countries, the afore mentioned France,

135
00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,080
Speaker 1: Britain and US, they devised the Berlin Air Left to

136
00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:58,240
Speaker 1: take supplies over to West Berlin and keep them, you know, sustained.

137
00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:00,080
Speaker 1: And so they were doing what they could, but some

138
00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,559
Speaker 1: people were still very angry about the situation and wondered

139
00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,040
Speaker 1: why this American superpower couldn't help save them. So the

140
00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:10,239
Speaker 1: people who laughed and misinterpreted the speech probably did it purposefully,

141
00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:12,960
Speaker 1: just as today. You know, when we listen to comments

142
00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,240
Speaker 1: that political figures make, we have ways of making fools

143
00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:18,720
Speaker 1: out of them in our own minds, for our own

144
00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:23,360
Speaker 1: personal reasons. Understood like a nuclear that would be one example,

145
00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,200
Speaker 1: very relevant and modern. Well, you've made me very hungry

146
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:28,840
Speaker 1: while you cleared this up. I'm actually I kind of

147
00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:31,240
Speaker 1: feel like a fair claw. I'm not big on jelly donuts,

148
00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,560
Speaker 1: but I'm going to get some pastry of some sort

149
00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:35,600
Speaker 1: that sounds good. And in the intro and the rest

150
00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:37,640
Speaker 1: of you can read how the Berlin Wall Work for

151
00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:42,280
Speaker 1: more about this topic on stuff once dot com. We're

152
00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,640
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics because at

153
00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:47,920
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.

154
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:57,719
Speaker 1: Send an email to podcast and how stuff works dot com.