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President Reagan's role in the cold war
President Reagan's role in the cold war
President Reagan's role in the cold war
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There are numerous inspirational public leaders in the United States. In times of tragedy, prominent leaders need to inspire their nation in a positive manner. Not only did President Ronald Reagan use language to establish a calming effect after a disaster, but he also reminded his nation that progress and exploration must continue despite challenges. By utilizing purposeful language, President Reagan established a consoling effect while delivering his Challenger Speech. Showing empathy in many aspects of his demeanor, Reagan positioned himself in the perspective of many afflicted families. Reagan recognized that the affected families’ “loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit…”. In a time of internal pain, Reagan realized it was challenging for the nation to maintain composed; his responsibility was to remind the country that the astronauts were doing their job for mankind. Recognizing grief and morn throughout the nation, President Reagan’s speech was resilient in being able to connect with the population and calm their emotion...
Politicians frequently receive negative publicity at the hand of their own use of language. Their uses of words as they relate to persuasion typically fall within one of the three dimensions of language functions, semantic or thematic. Often their persuasive language can be found to closely resemble any of these three categories simultaneously. There are many tools for analyzing persuasive symbols, many of which should be utilized when analyzing great communicators such as President Ronald Reagan. In response to the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28th, 1986 where seven brave American’s gave their lives. President Ronald Reagan made history with his famous speech, which didn’t only serve to address the great tragedy, but served as a focal point of comfort for the grieving nation. He commemorated the seven heroes who had fallen that morning in route to outer space; he expressed gratitude to NASA for their past developments and encouraged further explorations. Ronald Reagan was a great communicator, a charismatic persuader whose words delivered focus of the message through utilization of persuasive symbols. This paper aims not to be an all-inclusive guide for analyzing persuasive symbols, but will sufficiently guide the reader to be a more perceptive of persuasive language.
President Reagan, at the time in the beginnings of his second term, had successfully maintained overall a high approval rating with the American people. He had won their trust and respect by being quite relatable to the average citizen (Cannon). He had planned that evening to give his State of the Union address, but instead postponed it. The tragedy that had unfolded just hours earlier demanded his complete attention (Eidenmuller 29).
Reagan touches the people of the United States because he expresses grief and sorrow in his speech. After the disaster, Reagan uses tone effectively to commemorate the deaths of the crew. “They had a special grace” or “your loved ones were loving and brave”(3) are examples of how Reagan sympathizes with the mourning families. This tone not only allows the families to grieve their losses, it also provides them with the opportunity to feel proud about their children’s accomplishments. Furthermore, Reagan uses tone to carry the people’s afflictions after the Challenger crash and change it into confidence. The people of the United States look at this crash as a failure, but Reagan turns it around when he says, “what happened today does nothing to diminish it”(6) and “we will continue to follow them” (5). Reagan’s use of tone allows him to inspire the United States to keep moving forward after the flop. This hope is what makes Reagan’s speech so successful. Tone and rhetorical appeals guide the speech but Reagan’s use of rhetorical devices is what makes the speech so successful.
Former Prime Minister of England, Margaret Thatcher, in her 2004 eulogy for Ronald Reagan, exemplifies both his impact and legacy on the world. Throughout her speech, Thatcher memorializes Reagan’s performance in office as well as the decisions he made as a person by illustrating their time together to the reader. By utilizing these examples, the reader can then understand Thatcher’s overall claim that Reagan was one of the most profound leaders in history; however, the impact of Thatcher’s use of diction and sentence arrangement both provoke thought in the reader and allows him or her to comprehend her message on a more sophisticated level.
On January 28, 1986, a day that was supposed to be filled with excitement and exploration, suddenly turned into a day filled with tragedy and sadness. The space shuttle Challenger was supposed to carry a seven member crew into orbit with one unique member along for this particular mission. Christa McAuliffe was supposed to be the first teacher to go into space as a member of the Teacher in Space Project. Due to this occasion, the media coverage and the number of viewers of this mission was extensive, particularly in schools across the nation. The Challenger lifted off shortly after 11:30 A.M., but tragically only seventy three seconds after takeoff it exploded sending debris and the seven crew members back to earth and into the Atlantic Ocean. All seven crew members aboard were killed in the crash as America helplessly watched. A faulty O-ring in the right solid rocket booster was said to have been the cause of the crash. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was in office at the time of this tragic event. President Reagan was scheduled to deliver his State of the Union Address that same evening. His intentions were to mention the Challenger and the significance of that particular mission during his speech. This would not be the case following the events of that day.
Ronald Reagan was one of the most liked Presidents. When being elected for his second term, he won by a landslide—winning all the states minus Minnesota and Washington D.C. Reagan addresses the people of the United States of America. He wants the American people to reflect on his presidency, and as all presidents do in their farewell addresses, he wants to say goodbye to the nation that he's led for the past eight years. Ronald Reagan uses repetition, parallel structure, and allusion to reflect on his presidency and to say farewell to the American people.
In his speech in the aftermath of the Challenger explosion, Pres. Reagan used alliteration to convey his feelings of sadness to the families of the seven astronauts lost. He repeats the words special, spirit, and says to show as to what high regards he held the astronauts. Pres. Reagan said that the astronauts “had [a] special grace, that special spirit that says, “Give me a challenge and I’ll meet it with joy” (Reagan 1). The repetition of the words special, spirit, and says means that Reagan believed that the astronauts had something no one else had that differentiated them from the rest of society. Additionally, Ronald Reagan
Bush opens his speech by acknowledging the events of September 11, and those that lost the lives of loved ones and to those that gave their life trying to save others in the buildings. He appeals to those that remain strong by saying that, “These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong.” His use of pathos helps Bush to calm and control the public in order to keep the country together. This
In a person’s lifetime, many things can happen including death. In 1986 seven individuals, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnic, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe, lost their lives doing what they loved most. The tragedy of the shuttle challenger brought much pain to the nation that day. Along with the pain comes grieving. The nation grieved the loss of these seven wonderful individuals and hoped to find peace and comfort for the days to come. As Ronald Reagan prepared to give the state of the union address, things changed for worse, he unexpectedly had to give a speech on a horrific event. Reagan was devastated at the loss of the seven men and women that were on that space shuttle challenger.
On March 15, 1965 in Washington D.C ……..the courageous President Lyndon B. Johnson has delivered a legendary speech. It was called, “We shall overcome.” The speech came into conjunction, after the sad death of a black protester in Selma, Alabama. The protest was over black voting rights. Blacks were simply discriminated against voting rights on the basis of their skin color. Johnson’s aspiration for the “we shall overcome” speech, was to convince the congress, Americans, to pass his bill. This would be beneficial by enabling blacks to vote. Johnson is widely known for his effective use of ethos, logos, and pathos to engage the crowd.
On March 15th, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the, “We Shall Overcome” speech to the American Congress. Johnson demonstrated many rhetorical strategies, and used various poetic devices throughout his oration. Johnson did a great job of establishing a connection with his audience, which allowed for him to simply promote his ideas. Throughout his speech, he talked a lot about American pride and conveyed a strong sense of Nationalism. His speech was structured in a unique way, which allowed for his it to flourish and be very effective.
critical time. Reagan did not start out as a man of politics. In fact, he made his
The day of the challenger explosion Reagan had originally planned on speaking to the nation to report on the state of the union, but this unfortunate event caused him to have a sudden shift in plans. He had to quickly put together a speech appropriate for the occasion and construct an argument to defend the NASA program. The shuttle challenger explosion caused many Americans heartache as well as great uncertainty about what would become of NASA. In the speech, Reagan spoke to the nation as a whole and tried to console everyone as best he could. He honored the men whom risked and ultimately lost their lives in this horrible accident. He also addressed the families of the seven brave men directly in his speech.
Alexander Stephens was the vice president of the Confederate states of America during the civil war (1861-1865) and he is the one who gave the famous speech known as “the Cornerstone Speech” where he stated openly the ideas on which the new government was founded: the supremacy of whites over blacks. Stephens played an important role in drafting the new constitution and he had the opportunity to present the new form of government in the speech that took place in Savannah on March 21, 1861.
In many ways John F. Kennedy’s decision to have this speech as well as the contents itself, reflected how he was instrumental to success in keeping the public calm. The president could hav...