John F Kennedy Speech Thesis

I. Context

John F. Kennedy delivered this speech to the graduates of American University in Washington D.C on June 10, 1963, it was a very stressful and apprehensive time in American history that the speech was recited. Everyone in the world knows this time to be known as the Cold War. The whole Cold War had been an era in history where the nation and world were at a standstill. The later part of the previous year (1962) had been the apex of the whole tense dispute between the United States and the communist Soviet Union. Specifically, October of that year had been considered the peak of the cold war due to the very tense days that were to be later known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The whole fact that the Soviets had sent nuclear missiles

This evoked some highly tense thirteen days of actions and communication efforts between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the President of the United States John F. Kennedy. These apprehensive days ended when Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed to the Soviets removing their missiles from Cuba in exchange that the United States would promise to not invade Cuba. Kennedy had also secretly agreed to remove his nuclear missiles from Turkey, this secret allowed Kennedy to look tough to the world’s media. The whole apprehensive feeling of the Cold War died down a little after the crisis, but it was still a towering thing in the mind of the American People. The American people were still in a state of relief since they had narrowly just escaped a third world war and more importantly nuclear war. Nothing as tense as the Cuban Missile Crisis had happened in the early part of 1963, so this gave Kennedy the opportunity to address the American people that the country needed peace with the Soviets and the people of the world needed

Throughout most of the speech Kennedy would tell the American people that it was important for us to change our perspective on the communist Soviet Union that way it would be easier for us to make peace with them. Kennedy talked about securing and building peace among the world. Another big reason why Kennedy wanted to deliver the speech was because he wanted to propose the nuclear test ban, this test ban was a huge thing at the time of the nuclear age. He knew that the Cold War had gotten to close for comfort so him emphasizing how crucial and important world peace would be in the future was a key point in this whole speech. He wanted the future of the United States and the world to be in peace with each other and striving for greatness. Another subject Kennedy wanted to speak on was how he wanted to everything in his power to get rid of weapons and get rid of the terrible thing that is world war. He knew as long as weapons were being produced, real genuine peace would not be as strong a possibility as it would be without weapons. Kennedy addressed the American people and government by telling them that the people should strive for the good and for the government to protect the American’s rights. The last thing the President talked about was that he wanted him and the Soviet leaders to gain a