Ronald Reagan directed the statement "tear down this wall" to Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Moscow Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev . Ronald Reagan . Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an `` evil empire '' , and during his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate , President Reagan challenged Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to `` tear down this wall ! '' Tear down this wall! . is a line from a speech made by US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12 , 1987 , calling for the leader of the Soviet Union , Mikhail Gorbachev , to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961 .