What speeches and dates did Ronald Reagan say the 'become an American' quote in, and are full transcripts available?
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Executive summary
Ronald Reagan used the line that “anyone…can come to live in America and become an American” in more than one public remark, and the phrase appears in Reagan Foundation quote collections, a speech at the groundbreaking for the Reagan Library, and in what he called his last presidential remarks; full transcripts for major Reagan speeches are publicly archived but the exact phrasing sometimes appears in abridged or quoted form rather than as a searchable phrase in every full transcript [1] [2] [3] [4]. The Reagan Library and major speech archives hold transcripts for his principal addresses, while foundation quote pages and third‑party quotation sites reproduce the line in slightly varying wordings [5] [6] [7].
1. Where the quote appears in Reagan’s public record
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation’s own quote pages reproduce versions of the line multiple times, including a formulation that starts “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman…But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American,” and a variant that opens “Anyone from any corner of the world can come to America and become an American” [1] [8]. The Foundation also attributes the line to remarks at the groundbreaking for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs in Simi Valley, indicating the phrase was used in at least that public occasion [2].
2. The “last speech as President” usage and chronology
Reagan himself framed the line as part of what he described as his final presidential remarks: in remarks recorded as “since this is the last speech that I will give as President” he quoted a letter with the “you can go to live in X but you cannot become X” anecdote and concluded with the assertion about becoming American—an excerpt that the Reagan Foundation and other collections show as coming from his final presidential comments [1] [3]. Contemporary archiving and commentary identify that final set of remarks as occurring in 1989, and third‑party sites explicitly label the address as Reagan’s last speech as president in 1989 [4] [3].
3. Are full transcripts available for the speeches that contain the line?
Full transcripts for Reagan’s principal speeches and his Farewell Address are archived and publicly available: the Reagan Library hosts the text of the Farewell Address and other major remarks, and institutional speech archives such as the Miller Center compile major Reagan speeches through 1989, so full texts for core public addresses are obtainable [5] [6]. The specific instances where the “become an American” line is quoted also appear on the Reagan Foundation site and in the Reagan Library’s collections, and commentators note the Medal of Freedom and last‑speech contexts are posted in those repositories [3] [9]. However, some online reproductions present only the quoted passage or a paraphrase rather than a complete searchable transcript tied explicitly to a single date, so locating the exact full‑text context may require consulting the Reagan Library or Miller Center entry for the speech in question [1] [2] [6].
4. Variations in wording, sourcing, and why that matters
Public record shows at least two close phrasings—“anyone from any corner of the world can come to America and become an American” and “anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in the United States and become an American”—and quotation aggregators reproduce yet another variant that opens with “America represents something universal in the human spirit” before retelling the same letter anecdote, signaling editorial trimming and paraphrase across outlets [8] [2] [7]. The variance underscores that while the sentiment was clearly part of Reagan’s rhetoric and appears in multiple primary repositories, researchers should consult the full, dated transcript at the Reagan Library or Miller Center to confirm exact wording and placement in the speech [5] [6].
5. Credibility, context, and the institutional angle
The Reagan Foundation and the Reagan Library are primary institutional stewards of Reagan’s legacy and therefore promote standard versions of his memorable lines; independent quotation sites and archives echo the phrase but sometimes lack the full contextual transcript, creating space for small discrepancies in wording and date citations [1] [7] [6]. Given that the line appears in what Reagan described as his final presidential remarks and in library‑groundbreaking remarks, and that full transcripts of key addresses are hosted by the Reagan Library and scholarly speech archives, the combination of foundation quote pages plus archived full texts provides both the short quoted passage and the means to verify the complete context [3] [5] [6].