 It's tough, ceaseless, and vital job of training, in a field which could be any field, in any part of the globe where America shows the flag, and its armed forces join in the free world's defenses. But this field has a very special geographical location. Americans train here, in full sight of the enemy's watchtowers. For this field is at the edge of a city whose outer perimeter is defined by barbed wire and across whose face runs a wall of stone dividing the city in two, etching it indelibly on the consciousness and the conscience of the world. And making the duty of American servicemen here a symbol of U.S. determination to stand fast in freedom's defense against all threats of communist aggression. The special circumstances and the meaning of duty in Berlin are made known early to troops serving here. As I stand here talking to you, we are being observed by a communist soldier from the tower to your direct front. Much of our training is in view of the communists. This is actually desirable. The result is that they know we are here and that we are prepared. Since you see running along the border consists of four to five separate barbed wire fences preceded by a mine field. The communists built this barrier to keep their people from escaping to the free world, and it does just that. Down in the heart of the city, this wire fence is replaced by 27 miles of stone wall. 27 miles of education on the communist campaign to destroy freedom. Once you have seen that wall, you'll never forget it. There won't be any doubt in your mind as to why you were here. The communists have made it very easy to understand. No, you don't forget this wall. It stretches across Berlin like an open and festering wound. The city it divides covers more than 340 square miles, larger than Washington and Paris combined, and one quarter the size of the state of Rhode Island. It lies 100 miles from West Germany itself. One part of it in the west is open and free, a healthy and thriving city, one of the loveliest in Europe. The other section in the east is part of a closed communist state. Merges into that of the communist empire which stretches across Eastern Europe. It is this division which makes Berlin a city in agony. The wall which cuts across it cuts deep, and its scars are as ugly as the scars of war. Knifing through homes and shops, through churches and cemeteries, it separates families and friends, and severs the historic ties which are the veins of a city's life. The communists built the wall to keep the East Berliners locked inside the prison of their police state. And all along the wall are poignant memorials to those whose last act of life was one of defiance and bravery. But the communists built the wall too in an effort to isolate West Berlin and bring this outpost of the free world into the communist camp. It did not work. For West Berlin's continued freedom is protected by the presence of the Western Allies, the French, the Americans. The actual number of US Army troops in Berlin is relatively small, one brigade. But in this potential trouble spot which has dominated the world's headlines for two decades, they have a mission sharply urgent to the nation and the free world. To maintain a stature of constant preparedness, the streets of Berlin echo to the rumble of armored tracks as troops deploy through the city. To the Berliners themselves, it is a familiar and reassuring sight. For these alerts serve as a continuing demonstration of America's commitment to the defense of the territories of freedom. The psychological effect of this continuing demonstration, important to Berliners and Americans alike, is an added payoff for the exercises over and above their training purpose, which is to keep the troops on guard and equipped to handle any emergency that might arise in this divided and troubled city. The reason why this constant vigilance is necessary is rooted in the history of Berlin as it was written with the ending of World War II. Two decades ago, when that greatest of all wars was over, Berlin was a city in ruins. It reached an agreement that with the end of hostilities Berlin would be jointly occupied by the American, British, French and Russian forces. Each had its own zone of responsibility in the city, which was itself 100 miles inside the Soviet sector of Germany proper. Expected that the occupation of Berlin would be a temporary affair and primarily an administrative one. But almost immediately, the Russians showed that they looked upon their occupation areas as Soviet territories, rigidly isolated behind an iron curtain. Immunization of East Berlin began at once. The notorious powers would remain in Berlin until all of Germany was united through free elections. The communists launched an intense campaign to try to force the Western powers out of Berlin. It has maintained that since the city was in the Soviet zone of Germany, it should be part of the communist state. By the thousands used West Berlin as the gate through which they could escape the new totalitarianism which had been forced upon them into refugee camps. Some stayed in West Berlin, others left by air for West Germany. In 1948, the communists endeavored to blockade West Berlin and its protectors into submission. They cut off all transportation into that part of the city so that no food, no supplies of any kind to sustain the life of the city could get through. It was an historic airframe of 1948. American and British planes began flying around the clock to bring into the city supplies for both the military garrison and the people of West Berlin. Most 110 million miles and carried almost two and one half million tons of cargo. Kept West Berlin alive. In May 1949, the Russians lifted their blockade. The airlift had turned the communist threat to starve the city into an empty boast. It had shown the world that a beleaguered people would resist communist efforts to enslave them as long as there was any hope. It had shown too that the West would not abandon the people so threatened. To the communists, a return to the situation that existed before the blockade was preferable to a continuing demonstration of West Berlin calm faith and allied power. So, allied traffic began to move freely through the city once more. The course of history did not run smoothly for the communists after that. Riots erupting in East Berlin showed the extent of the people's dissatisfaction with their life under red rule. It did not stop the flood of East German refugees who kept pouring into West Berlin, seeking the freedom they were denied by the communists. In August 1961, the communists built their wall of shame. It was an act of brutal desperation, unparalleled in modern history. Through what had once been the commercial center of the city, they erected this visible barrier of concrete and stone to be topped with wire and guarded with gun. Once again, the world saw the passion with which men will defy tyranny on the part of those who risked and often gave their lives in an effort to escape their police state, even across the barriers of stone and barbed wire. But except for the lucky few who made it from time to time, East Berlin and all of East Germany is now imprisoned behind the wall which cuts through the heart of the city. East Berlin, however, has not been intimidated by the wall any more than it was in an earlier time by threats of blockade. Existing as an island of freedom and a communist sea, it continues the great task of its rebuilding and rising from the rubble of the destruction of the past are the shapes and signs of new and vigorous life. The obvious marks of a city with splendid hopes for its future. A memorial to the Allied troops who conducted the great airlift of 1948, erected by the Berliners themselves, stands as a constant reminder of Allied determination to preserve the freedom of West Berlin. An even more meaningful testimonial, however, is in the continuing presence of Allied soldiers. They trained to be prepared to handle any kind of emergency the communists might promote, old tactics. In the event the communists should ever try to take over the city by mob action. Because the communists have never relented in their announced determination to claim West Berlin for their own, the threat of war is never far away. Suddenly, with no prior warning or announcement, traffic into and out of the city will be stalled for hours or longer. Practically, they resume their tactics of harassment of the city. Communists' planes on occasion fly over the city, buzzing it, presumably trying to frighten or intimidate its people. Such tactics create an atmosphere of constant crisis. But the Allies have taken their stand in Berlin as a frontier of freedom which cannot be abandoned. They keep the routes of travel into the city open, despite all the threats. At Tempelhof Airport, one of three air bases operated by the Allies inside Berlin, the U.S. Air Force guides aircraft, both civilian and military, traveling to West Berlin along the three air corridors from West Germany to which the Allies have access rights. Each of the three corridors is 20 statute miles wide. The world has become depressingly familiar with tensions which arise when communist planes decide to obstruct travel along these routes or when an Allied plane unwittingly flies off course. At checkpoints like Bravo, Army troops maintain freedom of road travel along the Autobahn, connecting Free Berlin with West Germany. Trouble occasionally flares when Soviet authorities attempt to coerce the Allies into dealing with the East Germans. But the Allies refuse to submit to East German control and checkpoints such as Bravo remain a lifeline to the Federal Republic of Germany 100 miles away. Surface access to West Germany is also maintained by rail, a train running between West Berlin and Helmstedt whose operation is supervised by U.S. authorities. It's not a very comfortable train trip. East German engines pull the cars most of the way and perhaps in resentment that the Americans have refused to let East German flags fly from the locomotives, the communists sometimes seem to make a brutal game of it. And a grim joke has grown up that through East German territory the train develops square wheels. But the rail line stays open and Allied passengers travel it as if they were suburban commuters out of New York. Inside the city, at crossing points such as this one known throughout the world as Checkpoint Charlie, Allied troops maintain the right of movement of traffic between East and West Berlin. The communists have brought commercial life between their own sector and Free Berlin to a standstill. But the Allies have insisted on the freedom of Allied travel, often in the face of harassment and provocation. And Checkpoint Charlie remains open, a well-protected breach in the Communist wall. Inside the city too, Army patrols maintain a constant patrol along the 54 miles of border within the U.S. sector. These patrols comprised of soldiers from the three infantry battalions on duty in Berlin are the mobile outposts of the American presence here. The wall is their beat. They travel as close to it as they can, keeping it always under surveillance, and keeping the forward areas of the enemy's part of the city beyond the wall under continuing observation. Searching for changes in fortifications or signs of troop and vehicle movements in neighborhoods which could become fields of violence at any time. As always, troops on duty in Berlin undergo intense training. The outskirts of the city is an important training area. For if actual combat were to break out here, it would involve heavy fighting in built-up areas. Consequently, training bears down on those skills unique to combat in cities. House to house fighting. The tough and brutal kind of war fought in crowded areas where the enemy can erect strong and protected defenses. And victory is measured in rooms doggedly cleared out one by one and city blocks methodically taken. To blow the whistle, communists have built their wall of stone and barbed wire and stone and wire, but of a determination deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of free people. And behind this wall, a city grows and thrives. The machineries of individual liberty are functional and real behind this wall. Those who have worked long and hard are free to reap for themselves the fruit of their labor. To enjoy the prosperity they have built behind this wall. Their future, though it is fraught with challenge, is also rich in promise behind this wall. More than anything else, a city is its people. If a city hopes and has faith, it is because its people do. And the people of West Berlin have shown a faith so strong in themselves and with their free world allies that it has itself become a legend to the rest of the world. His presence in Berlin today is a symbol too. A continuing and living testament to America's recognition of Berlin's special position in the history of our times. And its meaning to America and to the world. The meaning of freedom itself. And the toughness of its validity when it is maintained by men who are determined to preserve it. The cadence of Americans on duty here resounds along a street which is itself a memorial to an American president who stirred Berliners and free men everywhere with words he spoke here a few months before his death. As a free man, I take pride in the words, I am Berlin. The response to that ringing cry echoes today in the hearts of its citizens who have lived calmly in the face of danger for almost a full generation and know well the significance of those words. And so do the American soldiers on duty here. For Berlin occupies a special place in the record of man's struggle to preserve a world where freedom lives and offers hope for a future still dimly seen. So the men who serve here share that special honor. They stand in view of the enemy's watchtower. They serve in the shadow of the wall he has built. As not all men are privileged to know, the meaning of the freedom they are sworn to defend.