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Former White House Speechwriter Visits SHP as Guest Speaker

5/17/2018

Guest speaker Peter Robinson provided President Ronald Reagan with more than 300 speeches, including the 1987 Berlin Wall address.

Peter Robinson gave a presentation to a packed auditorium of SHP students May 1st, sharing details about his career as speechwriter and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He was the wordsmith behind the famous Berlin Wall Address, and wrote more than 300 speeches for the chief executive. He talked about the politics of the time, his writing process, and career trajectory.

The event was organized by the SHP English Department, Social Sciences Department, and “Students for Freedom,” a conservative youth group at SHP. In advance of the presentation, students prepared over a dozen questions for Robinson to answer at the close of the session.

Among the questions: How he became a White House speechwriter at the age of 25 (Answer: it was a combination of luck, timing, and connections); and what advice he has for conservatives in liberal areas (Answer: Be activists).

Hannah Cevasco (SHP ’19) moderated the talk. She is a leader of the Students for Freedom group, and next year’s SHP student body president.

She was interested to learn about Robinson’s extensive research while writing the Berlin Wall Address, including how conversations with Berliners helped shape the speech.

“Had it not been for the dinner party in West Berlin that Mr. Robinson attended and the conversation he had with guests about their perspectives of the Berlin Wall, [he may never] have written those famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev—tear down this wall.”

While presidential advisors recommended the Berlin Wall not be mentioned at all in the speech, “Mr. Robinson defended his work and made sure Reagan had the chance to express his true sentiments to the people of Berlin.”

View Robinson’s SHP presentation here.

Mr. Robinson is an author, former White House speechwriter, and a current Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1983 he joined President Ronald Reagan’s staff, serving almost five years as speechwriter and special assistant to the President, an experience he recounts in his 2003 book, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life.

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