Masaryk university faculty of education
Harry S. Truman, Speech on Korean War, 1951
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- 19.John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
- 20. Richard Nixon, War in Vietnam, 1969
- 21.Ronald Reagan, Strike against Libya, 1986
18.Harry S. Truman, Speech on Korean War, 1951With the Cold War well under way, Truman was sure to deal with the skirmish in South Korea as swiftly and decidedly as he did with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the beginning of the conflict, neither the Russians nor the Japanese wanted to leave Korea at the end of World War II, which is why the 38th parallel was established to separate the zones of influence. The southern portion of the country (South Korea) had a successful election and became a democratic country, while the Soviet Union governed much of the activities in the, now communist, northern part (North Korea). In 1948, the communist section attacked the southern part thus starting the conflict. Immediately, the United States, which had previously adopted a policy of containment, became concerned about the possible spread of communism and appealed to the United Nations, which in turn approved Americas’ quick intervention, calling it “international assistance to the Rhee [southern] government”. Truman chose General Douglas McArthur to lead this operation. McArthur successfully pushed the North Korean communist troops back beyond the 38th parallel, but did not stop there and continued all the way to the capitol, Pyongyang. That aggravated the Chinese, which entered the war and sent their troops in, causing the advance to stall. Truman wanted to avoid open conflict with the Chinese, but General McArthur disagreed and was relieved of his job soon after. What began as a minor intervention lasted not weeks or months but three years and ended up costing over forty thousand American lives. Linguistically, Truman’s speech belongs to the category of longer speeches, not very memorable or remarkable, with a lot of justification and explanation. Ironically, war on Korea was actually never declared as Truman always addressed it as a ‘police action’. 19.John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962The cold war was at its peak when Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Germany in 1961 to try to reduce the tensions between the West and the East. The meeting had no positive results whatsoever; to the contrary, Khrushchev had decided to build a wall through Berlin to stop the exodus of Berliners to the west. A few months later, the US obtained firm evidence that the Soviet Union had sent technicians and equipment to Cuba with the intention to build nuclear missile bases, later confirmed by aerial photos. The United States considered this an unacceptable act of aggression posing a direct threat on American soil. Several days of intensive and heated negotiations began between the US and Soviet diplomats, accompanied by a naval blockade of Cuba. Kennedy’s speech was televised only hours before a potential military action in case the Soviet Union persisted in sending missiles to Cuba. Though Kennedy “did not have a very impressive legislative record” prior to becoming president, he was able to make up for this lack of image by putting together eloquent and memorable speeches, which remain some of the most quoted. (Geis, p. 39) To this day, the speech in this corpus is among one of the most quoted and referenced speeches by other politicians, who hold Kennedy in high esteem for his strong convictions and references to a city upon a hill or other themes near and dear to the hearts of Americans. 20. Richard Nixon, War in Vietnam, 1969When Richard Nixon entered office in 1969, he was committed to, among other things, ending the war in Vietnam, which he had inherited from his predecessor Lyndon Johnson and before him from Kennedy. The conflict began in 1963, when Kennedy’s administration attempted to stop the spread of communism to South Vietnam. By the time Nixon was elected, more than 36,000 American soldiers had been killed. That number would almost double by 1973, when the United States finally ended their military presence in Vietnam. The American public elected Nixon in hopes of changing the outcome of Johnson’s disastrous military commitment in Vietnam and expected him to order troops out and cease America’s military presence. However, Nixon and his close adviser Henry Kissinger proposed Vietnamization of the conflict instead, which would involve training and arming the South Vietnamese military, and a slow withdrawal of troops thereafter. Though he “called this military operation an incursion, as opposed to invasion, [which] greatly displeased the critics, the public reacted favorably. (Geis, p. 22) Linguistically, Nixon stresses explanation and reasoning over motivation and conviction. The ‘silent majority’ mentioned at the beginning of the speech is his primary audience, the group Nixon credited for his election, mostly middle-class conservatives that did not express their opinion publicly or in demonstrations against Vietnam. Clearly, the message hit home, as this speech (often referred to as the ‘silent majority speech) actually increased Nixon’s approval ratings and was considered very successful. 21.Ronald Reagan, Strike against Libya, 1986Reagan had five years of presidential experience under his belt when the Libyan conflict came about, which is perhaps why he dealt with it so swiftly and decidedly. In response to the PanAm bombing over Lockerbie, and the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin, funded by Gaddafi, with Americans were killed and injured, Reagan ordered an air strike on ground targets in Libya, targeting oil installations key to the country’s economic growth and stability. Being preceded by more serious conflicts such as the cold war escalations, including the involvement in ending the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, the bombing of Libya did not concern the public as much. Additionally, Gaddafi was considered a dangerous terrorist not just by Americans but also the entire western world, which gave the air strikes full justification. The speech is confident and quick, “peopled with good guys with good motives and bad guys with bad motives, the sort of world that exists only in mythic domains such as politics and religion.” (Geis, p.54) Interestingly, Americans have responded to Reagan’s discourse favorably, making him one of the most popular presidents in history, perhaps because they also “see the world in essentially the same terms.” (Geis, p. 56) Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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