John F. Kennedy was elected in 1961, the year that made it look like the start of a golden age of America. Before his term, the nation had been in a time of economic prosperity, and Kennedy intended to continue it. This success began with the baby boom period, establishing itself after the end of World War II in 1945. Soldiers came home from battle and the economy was developing and the future of the nation looked bright. However, the United States and the Soviet Union had tensions that continued to increase throughout the Cold War. Americans were worried about communism rising and spreading, and Kennedy vowed to rid the nation of it if he was elected. Therefore, his inauguration speech held promises of long-term solutions to impending complications. …show more content…
Kennedy makes the most of his short and sweet speech by mixing in propaganda to illustrate how much more socially advanced America is from the other nations. His glittering generalities placed purposefully throughout the speech distract listeners from the artificial dichotomy and bandwagon inferences. Kennedy begins the first sentence of his speech with valued concepts to evoke thoughts of unification in the United States. He describes his inauguration as a “celebration of freedom” that will eventually lead to some changes (Kennedy). He presents this glittering generalities as a way to inspire the Americans and gain their support for an economically prosperous term. The former President also using bandwagon in order to express his democratic ideals of the rich and powerful helping those below them. Kennedy announces, “we pledge our best efforts to help, [...] not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.” At this time, the people of the U.S. are afraid of communism growing and becoming too powerful, so Kennedy uses this fear to tell them they will help the poor as a solution to communism and poverty. By creating an us versus them scenario between the USA and its adversaries, the people are shown an artificial dichotomy where the nations will be able to easily compromise on important issues. Kennedy describes the international problems as two-sided: with and against the United States, saying “let us never fear …show more content…
Kennedy appeals to the citizen’s pathological need to eliminate conflict, solve problems indefinitely, and protect their rights. He does this type of persuasion to cause the people to react to his presidency positively. This speech was said during the Cold War, so people were on edge because of the impending battle, and he consoled the people with his confident diction. He outlines a “peaceful revolution of hope” that will help connect the neighboring countries and lower poverty rates (Kennedy). By saying “peaceful” he minimizes the fear of having a endless battle with the Soviet Union. Kennedy also provides beginnings of long-term solutions that he wants to develop over the course of his term. To emphasize the entirety of his solutions, he says they might take more than “one thousand days” to finish (Kennedy). This long period shows how he is willing to take the time to expand and put quality into his efforts of fixing each topic.TOPIC 3: Equality and freedom are mentioned frequently, and he indicated that if the people are “unwilling to [...] slow the undoing of those human rights,” they will have liberty for many decades to come (Kennedy). Kennedy uses the American Revolution as well to recognize why there are rights for everyone and why it is so important that we value them. His appeal to their need for them and their rights to be protected by the government helps the citizens look up to Kennedy more and follow his strong
But being able to implement facts, statistics, and overall truth into one’s rhetoric will only make a speech like JFK’s Inaugural Address more compelling. Kennedy does this by establishing logos into his address, touching on many different aspects and mentioning many different groups of people around the world. Kennedy acknowledges foreign lands and those “struggling to break the bonds of mass misery,” (2) Kennedy establishes logos by outlining the spread of Communism from Russia to less evolved or developed countries and reminds us that “those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside,” (2), which means that adapting the foolish principles of Communism will lead to a gloomy result. Kennedy gives his Inauguration Address at around the height of the Cold War, and by recognizing this, Kennedy proposes potential healing with Russia: “Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms – and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.
He completes his conference by mentioning his first public speech as president. He recalls both asking the same audience “what [they] would do for [their] country” (108) and finding the answer to his inquiry. His inauguration was remembered and praised for its echoes of patriotism. The audience took pride in the United States, and would feel inspired by Kennedy’s call to action. With his connections to events and conflicts in American history, Kennedy develops a sense of unification and trust in his
(Week 8, Doc. 25) Then he added later that American’s must “ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you”. (Week 8, Doc. 25) He believed by working together, we could begin to solve the Nations social problems. Kennedy was trying to show American’s that it’s necessary to fight for what’s fair in society, and to help others help themselves in order to prosper. The public felt Kennedy, with his idealism and vigor, would be a good fit for Presidential leadership, and would be effective in reducing the many of America’s domestic problems. After failing to keep some of his campaign promises such as, expanding the welfare state, and health care programs, he acted, after much pressure from civil right activists and pushed Congress by calling for a comprehensive Civil Rights bill.
Delivering the speech, Kennedy expressed compassionate and hopeful words to his audience. His view of freedom is something that makes its way through peace and negotiation. Kennedy states, “Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us” (16). This is a perfect example of Kennedy’s meaning towards freedom. He wants all nations to look at the things that join them together and can relate to rather than the things that guide them away from each other.
John F. Kennedy discusses and analyzes on how the nation differs from the past and present day in that time period. Kennedy narrators on the division and war in the the world to appeal to the audience patriotism by using pathos and logos. In this speech President Kennedy states “to thoses who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request; that both sides begin the quest for peace, before the dark power of destruction unleashed.” He uses this quote to obtain a logical appeal to the appeal to the people. Kennedy uses logos to show that he wants the nation to come together and be humble together in one peace.
“For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” This quote from the 35th president of the United States set a precedent of greatness for our country. The man who set such a precedent was John F. Kennedy. A very persuasive and well-read man, when he gave his inaugural address, our nation and the world knew we were in good hands. JFK not only was well-read, he gave moving speeches.
Kennedy often sets himself equal to his audience, as if saying that he is no better than anybody else, gaining their respect and support. For example in Kennedy’s inaugural speech, he states, “ United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures.” In this Kennedy is placing himself in the same category as his audience and saying that he needs them, just as much as they need him. Another example of Kennedy setting himself equal to his audience is, “ In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.” In this statement, John F. Kennedy is saying that the people of America, united, have more power than him.
J.F Kennedy, the president of United States wanted to put the first Americans to the moon-America exploring the moon, so he directed his speech to the people of taxes and Rice University to promote his space exploration program that will help America to be the first country to explore the moon. He believes that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. Throughout J.F Kennedy's speech, the speaker makes effective use of evidence, reasoning, rhetorical elements, and rhetorical devices that together form his argument to gain people support for his space exploration program. J.F Kennedy was trying to prove his point of view by giving examples and using a lot of Rhetorical devices and appeals that would grab the reader's attention
Kennedy realized how easy it was for a country to break apart in a time that they needed to come together. Being sworn into office, he could see the fear of the future in the eyes of the nation and truly wanted to reassure them that by being willing to face change as one, success was possible. Kennedy was able to assertively get his point across by emphasizing how prioritizing unification of the country is by relying on
His diction is very inclusive; he commences his speech with several uses of the words ‘we’ and ‘our’, which makes way for inclusivity. JFK is blurring the distinction between citizen and superior governor by including the people in his proclamation. While describing the hardships and challenges that the country is facing, Kennedy mentions how imperative the occasion is on a global level; in the midst of the Cold War, he reminds his audience of the importance of uniting. Through the use of the lexical field of danger — words such as: ‘defiance’, ‘serious’, ‘risk’, and ‘sacrifice’ — he creates a feeling of tension and urgency, and engages his audience to the concern. To conclude his speech, the President mentions self-guilt on the part of the country on how they had not displayed the “sense of business responsibility” that they should have, a rhetorical strategy that approximates the audience to the government.
Robert Kennedy’s speech was given during a campaign rally in 1968, he broke the news to a crowd of supporters that MLK had been killed. This speech was analyzed through a PDF copy of the text. The purpose of RFK’s speech is to inform the audience of MLK’s death, create a sense of comfort and calmness. RFK includes a quote from the poet Aeschylus
The Effective Use of Persuasion in Kennedy’s Inaugural Address The twentieth century was a tense and stressful time period for the United States. Towards the middle of it, the time most commonly known as “The Cold War” began. This marked the beginning of the arms race between this country and the Soviet Union.
However, in parts of his speech Kennedy talks about how certain groups in the nation are working to help the people of America. For example in line 92 Kennedy talks about the Department of Defense. He talks about what they’re doing to figure out why the prices of steel are rising so quickly and what needs to be done to protect the public interest. By using positive and negative words Kennedy is able to make his opinion clear. The audience is able to see Kennedy’s negative opinion on the rising steel prices and his positive opinion on what different organizations are doing to help with the current steel crisis.
Kennedy starts off by telling us how the world and freedom is in major danger, being close to a nuclear war, telling us that it has the power to end the human species (3). The next point made is that we should “... never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate” (Kennedy 15). This means that we should negotiate to make a means with that someone not because we have to negotiate to stay safe from that someone. Kennedy then says that the goal would to have the world work together to explore problems, have a common arm control and be equal in weaponry power, and work together to unlock new sciences (16-18).
John F Kennedy was a level headed, determined and well accomplished person. During his short-lived presidency, he had to take on challenges like no other and did it with sophistication and grace. From conflicts involving other countries, like Vietnam, to the Civil Rights Movement that directly affected our own country, Kennedy continued to take each problem day by day until there was an overall improvement or resolution. It would be safe to say that he is one of the more progressive presidents our country has ever seen. David Burner’s John F. Kennedy and a New Generation was written with the sole purpose of giving an insight into Kennedys upbringing and presidency in an entirely unbiased approach.