President John F. Kennedy’s speech was I believe that of a strong leader. President Kennedy demonstrated his fear for not only the United States, but other Nations as well, who were potentially put in harm’s way as a result of the Soviet Union’s actions.
President Kennedy began with the severity of this situation. He spoke about the possible wide spread and life threatening impact these missiles and weapons of mass destruction could have, the capability of traveling more than 1,000 nautical miles. The gratitude of this situation was definitely portrayed quickly, and effectively, in his first four paragraphs.
A launch into the Soviet Union’s credibility was quickly brought up, mentioning the outright defiance of the Rio Pact of 1947. As well as repeated assurance from the Soviet that no missile would be stationed on any other Nation’s territory. In fact, President Kennedy provided direct quotes from the Soviet Government, which was publically released a little over month prior to the movement of these nuclear weapons- shedding light that these misrepresentations were a flat-out lie.
President Kennedy goes on to remind the people that the U.S. is opposed to war, but challenged with this aggressive conduct, will take further action. “We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth—but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.” (Kennedy, 1962)
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