Rhetorical Analysis Of John F Kennedy's Commencement Address

During the Cold War, a time of great fear in the United States, our 35th president gave a commencement address at the American University in Washington D.C., on June 10th, 1963. President John F. Kennedy used the speech as an opportunity to discuss, in his words, “the most important topic on Earth: Peace.” His speech united the audience behind the idea of “genuine peace,” and he humanized the Soviets as worthwhile partners in genuine peace. He did so using ethos, pathos, and logos as techniques in his speech.
Kennedy begins the speech by addressing all those in the immediate audience. He includes a joke, saying he was receiving his law degree while delivering this speech. I believe this increased the audiences’ desire to listen to what he

would say next. He already had strong credibility as the President of the United States at the time, but he works to increase it further within the speech. Near the beginning, he states facts about the University: “the American University, sponsored by the Methodist Church, founded by Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, and first opened by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.” This proves to the present audience that he has taken the time to research where he is and recognize how the University came to be. Shortly after, he even quotes prior President, Woodrow Wilson, increasing his credibility. He has wonderfully clear organization throughout, as his next quotation is one he uses to transition into his discussion of peace.
He quotes John Masefield, a well-known British poet, who says a University is “a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see." Kennedy uses the word “ignorance” to move forward and speak about genuine peace. This is a point where he greatly increased his credibility because it is so easy for an audience to roll their eyes and say: “genuine peace is impossible!” He addresses this constraint,
“I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of universal peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream.” Kennedy called universal peace and good will a fantasy because he knew it was likely that members of the audience were thinking that exact thing. He explains that what he is speaking for is world peace, which does not require “that each man love his neighbor,” only that nations need to live together in mutual tolerance.

Kennedy’s speech is extremely organized and divided into four sections; in each section he has something he asks the audience to examine.

He asks citizens of the United States to examine their attitudes towards peace first; he says that thinking peace is impossible is “dangerous” and that since our problems are manmade, they can also be fixed by man. Following, he requests that the audience reexamines their attitude towards the Soviet Union. Kennedy continues to humanize the Soviets in this call for reexamining;
“Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union in the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and families were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland -- a loss equivalent to the destruction of this country east of

Chicago.”

This is a huge moment in the speech because Kennedy relates our country so strongly to Russia, in such a powerful way. He uses multiple historical facts and relates the loss the Soviet Union experienced during the Second World War to something the American people are familiar with. That causes Americans to imagine how they would feel if they experienced such a large loss, and he uses that when he states that the two countries that would be targeted if a war broke out would be the United States and Russia. He has brought about fear within the audience purposefully, and given the audience motivation to change their attitudes towards the Soviet Union, and in turn, towards the possibility of a test-ban treaty. The negative statements he makes about war give Americans an opportunity to change their feelings towards the Soviets by use of emotion.
Kennedy then went on to draw out emotions from his audience using facts and reason. He acknowledged an authoritative Soviet text on military strategy, and also acknowledged how discouraging it is that their leaders might actually believe the things propogandists had written about the United States wanting to take over the world. He does this to set up a platform in which he can introduce the Soviets as humans who are also in fear, just as the United States was at this time. He addresses each individual in the audience by saying:
“we must reexamine our own attitudes, as individuals and as a Nation, for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward, by examining his own attitude towards the possibilities of peace, towards the Soviet Union, towards the course of the cold war and towards freedom and peace here at home.”
This is extremely powerful in that it makes people look at themselves and their attitudes, as well as think of the Soviets as people experiencing the same things as them.
The rhetorical audience was largely the American people, but it was also made up of allies of the United States.

Kennedy had to be sure to address the allies and make it clear that he would not make any agreement with the Soviet Union, if it did not uphold their security interests as well. He knew there was possibility for issues to arise between the United States and its allies if he made any sort of agreement with the Soviet Union without taking them and their interests into account. So now, after engaging his audience, showing them the need for peace, Kennedy had fully prepared the audience for the actual purpose of this speech. The President announced that he was conversing with Russia “looking towards early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty.” He then stated that the United States had no intent to conduct atmospheric nuclear weapon tests as long as others do not do so. All of the statements and facts given previously prepared the audience emotionally for this announcement, he has given the American people strong motivation to stand by him in his decisions by this point in his

speech.
Kennedy has taken and communicated the position that peace is more valuable to the American people than war is. He states that total war “makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.” His argument is built on the idea that peace is more valuable than war, and he continually backs up this idea in the speech. The speech ends with Kennedy stating that the United States does not “want” or “expect” a war, nor will the United States start a war. He has repeatedly stated his exigence throughout the speech in different ways, but he brings it up again here when he states that this generation of Americans has already experienced enough of “war and hate and oppression.” This is extremely effective in that it reminds Americans what is at stake here if they do not change their attitudes towards peace and the Soviet Union.
So that his audience of the American people do not walk away remembering that they are one of the main targets at this point in time, he ends the speech by saying “we will be prepared if others wish it.” He states that the United States will do their part to build a “world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just.” The very last line is an incredible end to this speech, Kennedy says: “Confident and unafraid, we must labor on -- not towards a strategy of annihilation but towards a strategy of peace.” This line is so strong because it reiterates everything he has been discussing in this speech. He uses the word “we” to remind the American Citizens that part of the responsibility falls on them. He restates the fact that the United States will not be testing nuclear weapons, “not towards a strategy of annihilation,” showing that the country will avoid war and violence, and promote and work towards peace.