John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address
To begin with, the speech President Kennedy gave on January 20, 1961, was such a memorable moment. Kennedy knew how he wanted this speech to go, so he made it clear and short. He began working on this speech in late November while working on it he had help from many friends and advisers. Even though Kennedy's colleagues gave him ideas, this speech was worked on by himself. Every sentence on the address was worked, reworked, and reduced often. That speech is still famous today because of the words that were said and how it inspired many people to contribute with Kennedy. Birch was one of the Americans who were inspired by this which he said, “I remember feeling very invigorated by it, feeling at the end of the speech, man, this makes me want to do something, to contribute. ” It wasn’t the images that stuck with the Americans; it was the words.
Next, a reason that leads up to the speech Kennedy gave was that he was barely becoming a president. Before Kennedy became president, lots of things were happening before it. For example, the cold war continued to grow colder as the two sides stopped trusting the other hand more and tried to influence other parts of the world. Also, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law on May 6th. This law closes loopholes from the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and also dealt with voter disenfranchisement. Moving on, since Kennedy was becoming president, he had to do a speech every president has to do, which is called the Inaugural Address Speech. This is saying that he is ready to take the role of a president. For example, in Trump's Inaugural speech, he said that he would promise to protect the Americans and to be a good leader. John F. Kennedy said, 'We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. ' Also, as president, he would “ Get America moving again. ” Another thing during his speech, he relied on his youth and promised to bring about change.
Equally important, John F. Kennedy did terrific in his speech. For example, his eye contact and gestures were excellent. He never used too many gestures or too little, but used enough to show meaning to what he was saying and the words he said. His hands were moving like an instructor in a musician show, but lower by the podium, doing fast and deep hand strokes. I also noticed he used his right hand more than the left with the gestures he made. Likewise, with the eye contact, he kept his eyes up to the audience almost all the time and didn’t have to look at his paper very often. To add to this, he mostly listened to the right of the audience and a couple of times to the left as well as, his volume and rate worked very well in this situation. While his volume was high enough so everyone can hear, his rate also worked well. He was never talking too fast or too slow for the audience to understand. Most impressive was that he wasn’t wearing a hat or coat. He just wore a black suit, with a blue tie.
In my opinion, President John F. Kennedy presented this speech very well and organized.
Kennedy’s speech had many effects/changes and touched upon many people. He was still lifting spirits of the listeners even though he talked about the grim reality of things like the nuclear age. This speech was a sensation. After the speech Kennedy gave, he issued an executive order creating a temporary Peace Corps and asks Congress to authorize the program permanently. Also, Freedom Riders were formed, but in the event, they were formed, they faced attacks and violence at the hands of those who supported segregation. The sides who supported segregation include local police, leading to the injury and arrest of many Freedom Riders. A changed that happen was Kennedy announces to the American people that he has ordered a blockade of Cuba in response to the discovery that Soviet missiles were being installed on the island. This follows the speech, where he promises to make America stronger.
In conclusion, this speech was critical for many reasons; it showed that John F. Kennedy was ready to become president and take the role of it. Showed he was prepared for the challenges that we're going to come, and he was specially prepared to make America stronger. If it wasn’t for this speech, President John F. Kennedy gave all his accomplishments and events that followed after would never have happened, which means history would be completely different.
