JFK Inaugural Speech - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages His personal and political convictions can be determined not just by reading the contents and evaluating the style but also be learning about the context. John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech has been considered as one of the best ever made not just by an American president but by a world leader. Apparently though, the speech became famous not just because of its inherent characteristics but because of the man who delivered it. President Kennedy is one of the most enigmatic leaders in the 20th century. He was at the help of the US government when the country faced serious challenges coming from USSR at the height of the Cold War. One of the most prominent incidents that highlighted his effective leadership and diplomacy was the successful initiative on the nuclear test ban treaty in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis which he also handled well. President Kennedy did not pursue the ban merely due to his geopolitical views. He personally saw it as necessary as he explicitly pointed out when he said that the US owes it “because we are the only country that engaged in atomic warfare in the last war” (Schlesinger 453). ...
A brief glance of President Kennedy’s life several years before he ran and won the presidency does give the readers or audience of the context of what he wrote and then spoken during his inauguration. President Kennedy’s inaugural address is best remembered by the oft quoted line “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” (1961). The reason why this line has been recognized as the most compelling part of the speech is that it departed from the usual practice of previous presidents who took their oaths and rendered their own inaugural addresses. Prior to Kennedy, it was expected of newly elected presidents to state the domestic and international policies that their administration would pursue while in office. In this regard, the inaugural addresses served as the reiteration of the promises they might have made during the electoral campaigns, assuming that these are what the public wanted which is why they were voted into office. The most commonly used formula for the inaugural address was to state the problems confronting American society and then to provide the audience a briefing on the actual steps that the new president and his administration would initiate to develop and implement effective solutions. As a result, this leaves the audience with higher expectations but at the same time instilling in them a certain degree of passivity. President Kennedy’s inaugural address, however, took a radically different approach to the methods of how the problems of the country and of the world could be resolved. There is not a single portion in the speech that mentioned what concrete steps ...Download file to see next pagesRead More