In 1963, Kennedy famously declared himself a Berliner to defy Soviet pressure

In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy stood atop a platform in West Berlin to address a crowd of nearly half a million people. Just twenty-two months earlier, the Soviet-backed East German government had erected the Berlin Wall, physically trapping citizens behind the Iron Curtain. Kennedy's declaration, 'Ich bin ein Berliner,' was a bold rejection of communism and a promise that the United States would not abandon the city.