Summary Of Jfk Inaugural Speech

During his inaugural address in 1961, President John F. Kennedy first promoted his plan to expand the United State’s space exploration program. A few months later, in May of the same year, Kennedy formally announced his desire to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade to a special joint session of the United States (U.S.) Congress. Then in September, Kennedy continued his promotion of this slowly forming goal at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he spoke to a mixed group of professors, state leaders, scientists, and students of all ages. The main purpose of Kennedy’s speech was to rally more support for the growing National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program in Houston, as well as its rapidly expanding budget,

and to continue advocacy for the U.S.’s efforts to get to the moon. In the midst of the Cold War, Kennedy focuses on space as a new frontier to conquer as well as a new field in which to prevail over the Soviet Union (USSR). To expand these ideas and convince his audience of the severity of such endeavors, Kennedy implores the use of several rhetorical devices such as allusions, metaphors, and repetition.
In October of 1957, the Soviet Union, launched Sputnik 1 into space, making them the first country to successfully launch a satellite into orbit. Once news of this reached the U.S., the so called “Space Race,” a facet of the already existing Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR, began, and the U.S. was now behind. Kennedy uses his speech at Rice University to directly express how the newly developed space ventures will be a way for the U.S. to both beat the Soviets, and to protect space from further communist corruption. By doing this, Kennedy tunes into the patriotic aspect of the U.S.’s efforts and therefore gains support from many more Americans outside of the scientific community. Kennedy does, however, humbly recognize that the U.S. still has work to do in order to achieve its lunar mission by saying, “We are behind...we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.” Kennedy goes on to repeat the phrases “good of all men” and “progress of all people” to amalgamate any international viewers to the U.S.’s efforts, as well as defend the actions being taken from a stance other than mere competition with the USSR. Continuing his idea that space must be conquered, Kennedy personifies space science, as well as its dangers, and claims that “[space science] has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man” and the U.S. must be the country to determine its fate. This personification reintroduces the common enemy, communistic power, and expresses how the U.S. cannot sit back and allow space science to be manipulated by such evils.

Kennedy also calls attention to the fact that space is the final frontier for mankind.

He alludes to the discovery and founding of the U.S. and compares it to the exploration of space in the sense that, although some disapprove of further spending and exploration into space, “[the United States] was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them, [it] was conquered by those who moved forward--and so will space.” Kennedy continues to directly quote William Bradford, at the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, and his idea that with great action, come great difficulties, “and both must be enterprised and overcome with honorable courage.” Delivering his speech in Houston, Texas, Kennedy additionally refers to the exploration of the American frontier in the 19th century, in which Houston became a major city, and links it to his plan for Houston to now become “the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space.” By alluding to these successful American conquests, Kennedy reminds the public of the U.S.’s ability to achieve and allows them to see that these new goals, although seemingly distant, are feasible. Kennedy also uses a short series of rhetorical questions that he provides the simple, and yet complete answer for. Asking what was likely on the minds of many, Kennedy submits, “But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal?” Following with a simple response, Kennedy says, “We chose to go to the moon...not because [it is] easy, but because [it is] hard, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” Kennedy, like a captain talking to his team before the championship game, gives no room for excuses and no room for hesitation. With these rhetorical questions, instead of letting the audience wonder why the U.S. has chosen to do what it has, Kennedy clearly lays out the determined motivation. Finally, Kennedy illustrates a metaphor for the new

frontier: a wave. Just like every great exploration that had been before this, the U.S. had been the clear forerunner and this would be no exception. Kennedy promises that “this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space” after “those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolution, first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power.” Not only does Kennedy conjure up images of the potential of a drowning nation with this metaphor, but he also emphasizes the importance of leading the other nations on these successive waves of accomplishments like the U.S. has done before.
Although Kennedy was assassinated a little over a year after delivering his speech at Rice, his plan for winning the Space Race was completed in 1969 when NASA’s Apollo XI mission successfully landed the first humans on the moon. Kennedy’s speech in 1961 served as the public launching point for this mission and successfully promoted space exploration and stressed its importance to the greater masses. By connecting space exploration to past conquests and requiring the U.S. to be a leader in this field, like it had been in others, Kennedy effectively persuades his audience that the race for space will continue on regardless of the U.S., but it is imperative that any nation seeking world leadership must set about these aims and be a part of “the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”