Analyse how Kennedy creates credible enthusiasm in his speech.

John F. Kennedy's speech, which he delivered at Rice University in 1962, has entered the history books as
"The Moon Speech" because in it he made the bold promise that by going to the moon the country would
be first in reaching a new level of civilization and thus lead the world into a better future. Obviously, this
message alone would create enthusiasm among his audience. In this text, however, I will analyse in greater
detail how Kennedy actuallymanages to spark enthusiasm, and maybe more interestingly, how he makes it
all appear credible beyond the grand emotions.

To begin with, the speech can be divided into two parts. The first part (up to I. 53) serves the stimulation of
the audience. In this part he convinces the listeners of the greatness of the moon mission. In the second
part (from 1. 54 onwards) he explains details especially by quoting figures in the context of the mission

which creates and heightens the overall credibility. The end (from I. 70 on) ties it all together and commits
the listeners as well himself to the mission.

In the entire first part of the speech Kennedy is concerned with drawing an extremely positive self-image of
America. Obviously, his target is to make people happy and cheerful. At the end of this section the audience
will want to confirm everything he says. From I. 24 he outlines how America has to fulfil its
historic duty
which is to be the first in exploring the unknown: "man, in his quest for knowledge and progress,is
determined and cannot be deterred" (I. 24). Although he says "man", he means Americans as they are
meant to be the leaders of all mankind: "no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can

expect to stay behind in the race for space" (I. 26/27).

He goes on to explain that it is only because of the character of the American nation, their attitude to tackle
things before anyone else does ("Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first

waves of the industrial revolutions", I. 28), doesit become imaginable to do something seemingly
impossible. The idea he employs here to make this sound plausible is the reference to the Americans' proud
history of making the wild West habitable, civilized and prosperous. Further down, he explicitly appeals to
the century old
"can-do-mentality" that constitutes American identity and has done so since the days of the
westward movement when the pioneers gradually but certainly conquered the country: "What was once
the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of
science and space" (I. 50f.)

It is in this tradition and on the basis of these values that he places the new enterprise of going to the
moon. He
draws a direct line from the westward expansion to the attempt of conquering space by using
the term that has ever
been used to describe in a specific but also in an abstract way the process of
since

driving civilization further: "frontier" (1.50) By moving the frontier to space he makes the limits of what is
possible for Americans seem endless.

One other stylistic device he uses in order to prove the conquest of space is not just inevitable but has to
happen now is the image of condensed time. He squeezes the 50000 years of history of mankind into 50
years, the time span a human being can grasp because it represents the largest part of a human life. This
thought experiment makes many things that people have long been familiar with and have
been enjoying
as parts of their everyday lives seem to
have been invented only a few minutes, hours, days or months ago,
such as the capacity to write, the printing press, electricity. Penicillin
in his thought experiment, for
example, has only been available for week. (cf. II. 5 ff.) This creates pace and makes the next step, that is
the conquest of space, seem just round the corner.

After having drawn a positive self-image of America, which makes people want to applaud because they
feel praised, he moves on to make everyone at the scene feel involved by addressing the
people at Houston
and promising them that this involvement will not only mean pride and admiration but also a solid
economic upturn for the area: "Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment
and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth." (l. 48-
50) All this creates an atmosphere of overwhelming affirmation, a genuine "yes-setting" as modern
psychology would label it. In other words, he has created enthusiasm among the people for the project.
Having established plausibility, which he has by referring to the traditional American spirit of "anything
goes" and by putting the project as logically next in line in the evolution of technological development, he
takes the speech a step further. In the second part, Kennedy is concerned with the aspect of credibility,
which he creates by two versatile oratory moves.

Firstly, he admits that the whole enterprise will cost immense amounts of money: "To be sure, all this
costs

us all a good deal of money", (1. 54) Saying this as a politician In front of audiences is usually a very

unpopular thing to do becauseit is mostly the audience's money that the speaker talks about, that is tax
money used for public expenditure. Here, however, saying this so bluntly is unlikely to create any resistance
on the part of the listeners, particularly after having related it to the sums that Americans spend on
cigarettes, a voluntary leisure activity. (cf. I. 56/57) On the contrary, it shifts everything on an even more
serious level, thus makes it more credible. Being honest about costs that the people will have to bear will in
this case most likely yield a reaction of agreement and the acceptance of America's historic responsibility,
the divine path America has to go.

At this point Kennedy manages to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, he makes the project
will
once more appear as an American joint effort to which everyone must contribute ("Space expenditures
soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man,
woman and child in the United States, for we have given this program high national priority", I. 57ff.)
since it is deep down in the American psyche to want to tackle whatever seems impossible. Especially since
America wants to be the leading country in the world to which other countries look up, the "city upon a
hill"; "putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America" I.
75/76). On the other hand, he has also already ensured public consent for the expenditure of such
enormous amounts of public money, which may even necessitate tax rises. At this point of the speech,
however, in front of a happy cheering crowd, it is very unlikely that people will withdraw their affirmative
attitude to this project on the basis of something so mundane as money, since the task ahead seems to be
about something larger than life: "However, I think we're going to do it, and think that we must pay what
needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job." II. 70ff.

Secondly, the president sketches out the mission in numbers. By doing this he shows the audience that he
has acquired the expertise to describe details, which lets him appear as an informed speaker and not some

unrealistic dreamer. (cf. Il. 61ff.) At the same time the numbers also give the project more substance. They
show that scientists have exactly calculated the whole enterprise sO that - enormous as It seems - the
project has already been made manageable for humans, in other words: the Americans have once more
managed to tame a wild, dangerous and seemingly invincible territory. They have pushed the frontier
already.

The interesting thing about these two latter aspects is that in this speech they create an effect which is
contrary to the usual use of numbers in speeches. It has often been argued that quoting numbers and
figures in speeches, which some speakers do in order to appear very expertly, kills the tension and vibrancy
of them. Speeches become boring. In Kennedy's speech, however, this brings the speech, which has in the
passages before deliberately created enthusiasm and euphoria, down to more substantial level. If you
want to remain in the overall metaphoric image: it brings the speech from outer space down to earth. And
it is only then that the speech gains the necessary credibility for this seemingly incredible idea of going to

the moon.

In sum, the speech by Kennedy is a cleverly arranged piece because it is designed to first stimulate the
crowd by making it feel as being part of something so much larger than each individual. In a second part,
however, Kennedy channels the established enthusiasm by means of using a speech feature which is
usually considered to make speeches boring. Here, it just boils down the emotions to a realistic level.
Kennedy ends the speech with the familiar formula to ask for God's blessing. So finally, every American
must leave with the impression that no matter how great the task ahead, at the end, this is America,
nothing is too difficult, it is just what America is like.