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Our American Stories

President Reagan's Greatest Speech You've Never Heard: His July 4 Speech in NY Harbor

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, on July 4, 1986, moments before the largest fireworks display in American history, President Ronald Reagan gave a rousing speech from the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor. Standing beneath the Statue of Liberty, he reminded the country and the world what freedom really means.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:02.3

Guaranteed human.

0:14.2

And we continue here with our American stories.

0:18.7

On July 4, 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave one of the best speeches

0:23.7

of his presidency and one of his least well-known. It was a special day in New York City, for those

0:30.6

of you old enough to remember, or for anybody who was there, and I was, I was 25 at the time,

0:41.0

Operation Sale was in full display, as battleships and sailing ships of all kinds made their way along the Hudson River, including the largest

0:46.5

flotilla of tall ships to appear in one place at one time in modern history. It was also special because the restoration of the Statue of Liberty was celebrated,

0:57.8

and the Great Lady's torch, which had been extinguished on July 4, 1984, was relit two years

1:05.4

later to the day.

1:07.5

That evening, aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, President Ronald Reagan gave an address just moments before the largest public fireworks display in American history was to begin.

1:19.8

Here is how President Reagan started things.

1:23.5

It's recorded that shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia,

1:29.0

celebrations took place throughout the land,

1:31.8

and many of the former colonists, they were just starting to call themselves Americans,

1:37.1

set off cannons and marched in fife and drum parades.

1:41.5

What a contrast with the sober scene that has taken place a short time earlier in

1:46.8

Independence Hall, 56 men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they

1:54.7

pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric.

2:01.9

Each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the crown.

2:05.9

We must all hang together, Benjamin Franklin said, or surely we will all hang separately.

2:13.1

And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without

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