Winston Churchill delivered his influential "Sinews of Peace" speech in 1946 to call on the United States to confront challenges posed by the Soviet Union in achieving world peace. The speech established the context of rising tensions between the two new superpowers after WWII. Churchill effectively delivered his message of warning about Soviet expansion by employing rhetorical devices like diction, personification, and allusion. He highlighted the responsibility of the US, as the most powerful nation, to protect the world from "war and tyranny." Churchill's relationship with his American audience and the serious tone of the speech increased its potential impact.
Winston Churchill delivered his influential "Sinews of Peace" speech in 1946 to call on the United States to confront challenges posed by the Soviet Union in achieving world peace. The speech established the context of rising tensions between the two new superpowers after WWII. Churchill effectively delivered his message of warning about Soviet expansion by employing rhetorical devices like diction, personification, and allusion. He highlighted the responsibility of the US, as the most powerful nation, to protect the world from "war and tyranny." Churchill's relationship with his American audience and the serious tone of the speech increased its potential impact.
Winston Churchill delivered his influential "Sinews of Peace" speech in 1946 to call on the United States to confront challenges posed by the Soviet Union in achieving world peace. The speech established the context of rising tensions between the two new superpowers after WWII. Churchill effectively delivered his message of warning about Soviet expansion by employing rhetorical devices like diction, personification, and allusion. He highlighted the responsibility of the US, as the most powerful nation, to protect the world from "war and tyranny." Churchill's relationship with his American audience and the serious tone of the speech increased its potential impact.
Winston Churchill delivered his influential "Sinews of Peace" speech in 1946 to call on the United States to confront challenges posed by the Soviet Union in achieving world peace. The speech established the context of rising tensions between the two new superpowers after WWII. Churchill effectively delivered his message of warning about Soviet expansion by employing rhetorical devices like diction, personification, and allusion. He highlighted the responsibility of the US, as the most powerful nation, to protect the world from "war and tyranny." Churchill's relationship with his American audience and the serious tone of the speech increased its potential impact.
The Sinews of Peace Winston Churchills The Sinews of Peace speech impacted not only a nation, but also the world. Given in 1946, the speech awakened a nation to threats from abroad and inspired action to challenge those threats. After outlining the route to world peace and introducing the roadblocks that the Soviet Union presented in obtaining such peace, Churchills aim became clear. His objective was to call the American people to face the challenges that the Soviet Union presented in reaching world peace. Churchill effectively achieved his goal by employing useful tools such as diction, personification, allusion, metaphor, and invention throughout the entirety of his speech. Churchill was so effective in delivering his message that this speech is often seen as a Western declaration of Cold War against the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, America challenged the Soviet Union without engaging in a physical war with them, which is what Churchill advocated for in his speech. Before any attempts to analyze Churchills message or his effectiveness in relaying it, a proper context must be established. Only when placed in the proper context can a speech be fully understood enough to be examined and analyzed. In order to establish context, contemporaries must put on both historical and ideological lenses. When placed together, these frames of thought reveal interconnected situations that gave rise to Churchills speech. The Allied Victory at the end of World War II produced two superpowers that were unmatched by any others in strength: the Soviet Union and the United States. The victory precipitated Americans not to worry about future wars and caused an increasing amount of Soviet influence and control in Eastern Europe. The victory was also followed by Stalins election speech in which he heavily criticized and attacked capitalism as being the underlying cause of both world wars then promoted and glorified communism. These situations helped give rise to Churchills speech because they caused much ideological and international tension between these two countries, and The Sinews of Peace is meant to highlight these tensions and provide solutions to them. John Michael DiDonato Rhetorical Analysis Paper
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Another component of context is location. The location for Churchills speech is important to identify as it provides a further understanding of its meaning. The location of Churchills speech was Westminster College in the United States. The fact that the speech was given in America is important in a historical sense because America was one of the two superpowers in the post-WWII world. By choosing to present his speech in the United States, Churchill effectively reaffirmed that the diplomatic and economic solutions he proposes in the speech must center around America. From the ideological perspective, the speech was delivered in America because America represents the heartland of capitalism in the world and the ideological opponent to communism. Through location, Churchill had already taken his stance on these opposing ideologies before speaking a single word. Together, the situations that gave rise to the speech and the location of the speech both provide evidence of the relevant and opportune timing of Churchills speech. In other words, since Churchills message dealt with the pressing issues at hand, his speech was primed for maximum receptivity. Both the speaker and the audience are distinct, but complementary components of context. Understanding the speaker-audience relationship is crucial to analyzing the speech since this relationship determines the potential strength of impact the speaker may have on an audience. It is important to note that a speakers relationship with their audience does not directly correspond to their effectiveness in conveying their message but rather their potential effectiveness. The speaker still needs to persuade their audience, but their persuasion is limited by their connection with the audience. The relationship between the speaker and audience stems from the speakers ability to identify with the audience and appeal to their values and emotions as well as the audiences perception of the speaker. The intended audience of The Sinews of Peace speech is U.S. citizens. This fact is largely evident through the previous two components of context. The situations that gave rise to Churchills speech deal specifically with Americans and the location of the delivered speech itself is in America. It is also evident John Michael DiDonato Rhetorical Analysis Paper
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in Churchills repetitive calls for America to stand up against the Soviets expansion. As noted previously, the speaker of this speech is Winston Churchill. At the time of the speech, the U.S. audience held Churchill in high regard. As the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Churchill helped lead Great Britain to victory in WWII and gained the respect of many. Also, because of his former position, he possessed much authority on the subject of international issues. In addition to his own charisma and merit, Churchill was introduced by the President of the United States, Harry Truman, who remained seated behind him throughout the speech. Trumans presence represented the Presidents approval. Churchills ability to appeal to the U.S. audience is evident throughout his speech. This was easy for Churchill to do because he possessed the same values as the U.S. audience. He shared in the U.S.s love of capitalism, freedom, peace, and democracy and shared their fear and distain for communism and tyranny. By identifying and evaluating the speaker and the audience, it is clear that a strong relationship existed between Churchill and his audience, meaning that Churchill possessed the potential to impact the audience greatly. Now that context has been established, Churchills speech can be analyzed to determine how he employed different devices to achieve his speechs goal. Along with the devices found within the speech, the speechs style and arrangement are key to evaluating its effectiveness. Churchills style is marked by his emphatic stance against the Soviet Union and his serious tone in discussing matters of monumental weight. It was in Churchills style that allowed the audience to comprehend the gravity of his message. Churchill presented his speech in a topical and sequential arrangement in which topics logically progressed into the discussion of related topics. This format allowed Churchill to present many different ideas in a coherent fashion that tied his speech together. The first topic presented dealt with the United States power and subsequent and corresponding responsibility. Churchill frankly states to his U.S. audience that, The United States stands at this time at John Michael DiDonato Rhetorical Analysis Paper
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the pinnacle of world power. With this power, Churchill elaborates, entails an awe-inspiring accountability and anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Churchills emotionally burdening diction highlights to audience members why the speech is pertinent to them because they are the ones in charge of keeping peace. Churchill also employs diction to relay the approach the U.S. should take in carrying out their responsibility to ensure peace. Churchills borrows the military phrase over-all strategic concept and applies it the U.S.s approach. Churchills decision to relate a strategy for achieving peace to a strategy for winning wars provides a hint that the nature of peace keeping will be hostile and tense like wars. The audience members were largely shocked to hear Churchill's reference to war, especially so close after their victory in WWII. Churchills use of military diction helps prepare an unsuspecting and unaware U.S. audience for the speechs later revelations about the Soviet Union. Carrying the momentum and ideas of his first topic, Churchill shifts to discuss the actions the U.S. must take in order to secure global peace. Churchill explains that to keep peace all people must be shielded from two giant marauders, war and tyranny. Churchill employs personification here to emphasize the dreadful nature of war and tyranny. By giving them the attributes of a marauder, one who raids and plunders, he is better able to connect with the audiences emotions so that they can better grasp the consequences of not achieving peace. In this section, Churchill uses allusions to highlight the discrepancies that exist between Soviet actions and his outlined version of peace. Churchill first addresses the problem of war in keeping peace. Amidst outlining the benefits that a militarized unit in the UN could provide in avoiding war, Churchill states that the United States should not share its knowledge of atomic bombs with the UN since the organization is so new and not established. While on this subject, Churchill casually, but deliberately remarks that he possessed a peace of mind knowing that only the United States held the knowledge to create atomic weaponry. Churchill then goes on to state, I do not believe we should all have slept so John Michael DiDonato Rhetorical Analysis Paper
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soundly had the positions been reversed and if some Communist or neo-Fascist State monopolized for the time being these dread agencies. Here, Churchill negatively alludes to the Soviet Union by using the term Communist State and effectively equates them to having the qualities of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the Axis powers during WWII. The Axis powers, namely Germany, were largely the aggressors and catalysts of WWII. By paralleling the Soviet Union with the Axis powers, Churchill implies to the audience that if given nuclear capabilities the Soviet Union might act very similarly to that of Nazis Germany. The audience has no trouble believing this logic because they are as anti-communist as Churchill and believe communism to be as terrible as Fascism or Nazism. Continuing on with his outline for peace, Churchill addresses the other issue of tyranny which could roadblock his route to peace. He makes apparent that not all people experience the liberties Americans receive and this is true even in a number of countries, some of which are very powerful and that in these States control is enforced by dictators or by compact oligarchies operating through a privileged party and a political police. Here again, Churchill uses allusions to emphasize his concerns of the Soviet Union. At this time, the Soviet Union was a world superpower and its people were subjected to a dictator in Stalin and a compact oligarchy in the Communist Party. The Soviet Union perfectly fits the description of a country where its people are lacking in liberties, meaning Churchill's words were carefully chosen to act as an allusion towards the Soviet Union. The message that a lack of liberties is a direct result of tyranny hits home with Churchills U.S. audience. Apart from the rational opposition to tyranny, the United States has a personal history against tyranny as the country was founded when it declared independence from the tyrannical control of England. So ingrained in U.S. history and culture is a distain for tyranny that Americans cannot help but to empathize with those experiencing tyrannys suppressing effects. Even though Churchill is English himself, he is able to identify the feelings of his American audience and is consequently able to further his concerns of the Soviet Union by connecting with the emotions of his audience. John Michael DiDonato Rhetorical Analysis Paper
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After using diction to highlight the relevancy of his speech and to hint that the nature of peace keeping might be tense, Churchill uses allusions to the Soviet Union to point out why keeping peace will not be easy. In the next topic of The Sinews of Peace, Churchill explicitly proves why the Soviet Union is inhibiting the peace process. One way Churchill accomplishes this is through a metaphor: From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. (Churchill 253) The phrase iron curtain is used as a metaphor to liken Soviet actions in Eastern Europe to those of an iron curtain. An iron curtain can be seen as a strong, firm, unrelenting concealer and blocker. This relates to how the Soviet Union closed off Eastern Europe from the rest of the world. Eastern Europe was impenetrable to different ideologies as only communism was allowed to thrive there. The Soviet control of Eastern Europe was seen to Churchill as evidence of tyranny. This powerful metaphor fully connected with Churchills audience because it provided a symbolic visual on the conflictive implications of the Soviets actions. Evidence to support the metaphors effectiveness can be seen by evaluating its effects. The term iron curtain has become an iconic phrase of the Cold War. Churchill also uses invention as a tool to further his cause. He acknowledges the Soviet claim that their actions are precautions necessary to secure their western border from all future German aggression, but argues their intentions are more expansionistic than defensive. By understanding the Soviet position, he is able to better understand the issue and therefore be a better judge of it. Due to John Michael DiDonato Rhetorical Analysis Paper
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invention, Churchills argument is not as one-sided, but more objective. In this particular case, Churchill is able to gain more influence with those Americans who were unsure whether to believe in the Western or Soviet interpretation of events in Eastern Europe. Churchill concludes this segment by stating, This is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace. Churchill invokes a sense of unity amongst the audience with the words we fought to build up while also summarizing the points he has been making, Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace. Together, Churchill conveys to his audience that the Soviets are disrupting the peace process and that we, Americans, ought to act against this so to achieve peace. It is at this point where Churchill is able to convince the audience members that not only is peace threatened, but they must challenge those who oppose peace. Upon convincing his audience, Churchill in the speechs final topic offers suggestions on how the U.S. should act. It is in this topic where Churchill stresses that war must be avoided at all costs. Churchills speech is one of the greatest in the Cold Wars history and this is because Churchill was able to convey his message so effectively. The situations that gave rise to the speech, the speechs location, as well as the consciousness of Churchill to appeal to his U.S. audience and the audiences open reception to Churchills words, provided the perfect context for Churchill to deliver an impactful speech. Churchills style and arrangement in delivering his speech further aided his cause. Finally, the tools of diction, personification, allusion, metaphor and invention were used to persuade his audience that Soviet actions were contrary to peace and that they must act in opposition in order to achieve peace. In evaluating the speechs effect in causing the U.S. to oppose Soviet expansionism during the next forty years during the Cold War, it is clear that Churchills message was well received by his American audience.
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Works Cited Churchill, Winston. "The Sinews of Peace." Speech. Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. 5 Mar. 1946. NATO, 26 Nov. 2001. Web. 4 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/1946/s460305a_e.htm>.