Reagan Moves Into Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie Museum

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

He helped to bring the Berlin Wall down, so it's unlikely that Germans will forget who former President Reagan was. But just to make sure, his son Michael, a national talk radio host, is working to build on the Gipper's image by adding a touch of his dad's personal life.

This Friday, the founder of the Reagan Legacy Foundation travels to Berlin to announce a new permanent exhibit honoring his dad at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum that will open in November, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. His goal: "Honor my father in all of these different areas of the world where he made them free. It may not mean a big deal to us, but if you were behind that wall, you are very well aware that the anniversary is coming."

Reagan won't be showing up with a replica of the Oval Office, however. His gifts to the exhibit will be much more personal. "We're taking a cowboy hat there," Reagan tells our Suzi Parker. "They don't see the cowboy side of Ronald Reagan in that part of the world. We'll also give them some of the photos of my father and Nancy and [former Soviet leader] Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev." Before the exhibit opens in November, Reagan also hopes to give the museum a saddle, boots, and "ranch kind of things."

And it won't end there, if Reagan has his way. He also wants to get and donate part of his dad's original 1987 speech given at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, where he famously ordered Gorbachev: "Tear down this wall."

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