On September 12th, 1962, President John F. Kennedy mounted a podium at Rice University in Houston, Texas, ready to give a speech that would kick start the direction of the United States’ social and political over the following years. His speech marked the beginning of a new era in America, it was the dawn of the race to space against our red enemy, and came just when the people needed it most. This was a time of great fear throughout America. It was the height of the Cold War and the Russians had successfully launched both the first satellite, Sputnik, and the first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, in to space. It was clear the United States was losing in regard to technological ability, and citizens panicked over the threat of the rise of communism. President Kennedy needed to excite a general public that was living in terror and push America in to a new age of extreme technological innovation. With this in mind, JFK announced to the nation on that fateful day that the United States would be going to the moon, and “it will be done before the end of this decade.” The rhetorical impact of his speech on the morale of Americans became evident in 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Through his powerful use of rhetoric, such as redefining space as an attainable and alluring frontier, and useful analogies of time to create an international role and to appeal to the pioneering persona of Americans, President Kennedy was able to captivate his audience and urge a nation towards a true, “New Frontier.”
From the beginning of his speech, Kennedy set out to craft traveling to space and the moon as a manageable idea for the crowd. In order to do this, JFK presented the audience’s current situation in a sort of enthymematic, spatial scenario. He starts out by saying, “We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength.”2 By dividing up the audience’s overarching location, gradually moving outward from the centralized point of their current position and into the greater surrounding area, Kennedy directly prompts the audience to expand their viewpoint. This is paralleled by when he later says, “this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States.”2 By always starting with the centralized location of the immediate audience and mentioning the surrounding areas as smaller parts to a larger whole, each new location broadened the crowds scope, and alluded to space being the symbolic concluding zone of outward expansion. By incorporating the here and now, the ideas familiar to the audience, with the unfathomable stretches of space, Kennedy successfully made the moon seem like less of an unreachable frontier than the next tangible region “we” were destined to explore.
He also made the idea of traveling this new frontier more feasible by redefining common aspects of exploration into the new context of navigating space. Kennedy starts out by saying that “space can be explored and mastered,”2 that it is a “new sea”2 upon which we as a nation must “set sail.”2 By equating the immensity of space to simply a “new sea,” he successfully made space exploration seem far more possible than originally perceived. He indirectly suggested to the audience that if we can explore the depths and stretches of the oceans, what’s to say we can’t do the same in space? By redefining common navigational scenarios in the context of traveling to the moon, Kennedy was able to reduce the immensity of traveling outer space to a more comprehendible and practical idea for the audience.
Kennedy continued this rhetorical tactic by trying to justify space exploration when saying, “But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?” By associating both magnificent and mundane achievements with traveling to the moon, he successfully justified the idea of exploration simply because, we can. The reason we explore is for the sake of exploring, the reason that Rice plays Texas is because that is what we do, and we do it because we can. This justification is further supported when Kennedy mentions British explorer George Mallory, who, when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, responded “because it is there.”3 With that same logic in mind, President Kennedy continued saying, “Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.”3 He used examples of other great accomplishments that at one point many deemed impossible, such as flying over the Atlantic and climbing Mount Everest, to show that traveling to the moon is not a matter of practicality, but rather a matter of initiative. By using examples of previous accomplishments, Kennedy successfully painted the idea of space exploration as a very attainable and exciting goal, showing that, like in the past, we will do it because we can.
Another rhetorical scheme that Kennedy used to push Americans towards being fully invested in the race to space was using powerful analogies of time and urgency of the matter. After he successfully redefined the idea of space using familiar ideas and relatable accomplishments, Kennedy used time-based analogies to promote a sense of urgency and importance in his listeners. Just shortly after beginning, he discusses how no one can really understand how far humanity has come since the beginning, but challenges his audience to condense “the 50,000 years of man’s recorded history in the time span of but a half-century.” He continued by stating that by the end of the first 40 years, we know that man had learned to cover themselves with animal skins and left their caves to build better shelters.4 Then he underscored some important historical events, saying how “only five years ago”4 man learned to write and use a wheel, that Christianity emerged years ago, and that “less than two months ago… the steam engine provided a new source of power.”4 By compressing all of history into a mere 50 years and gradually shrinking the time frame, Kennedy was able to make such unimaginable and notable events seem less significant, and the final objective far less daunting.
He continued with the same analogy, stating that electric lights, telephones, and automobiles all became available last month, and “Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.”4 Through this tactic of condensing history, Kennedy was able to display a high sense of importance and achievement in his audience, and better connect the past with the present. By condensing the past and in turn the future, our perceived ability to reach the stars by midnight made the task of reaching the moon seem far more achievable. Kennedy expressed to the audience that they were living in a time of rapid growth across many nations, and that if someone were to really reach the stars “before midnight tonight,” then it better be us in the front.
While also making the task at hand seem more feasible, Kennedy’s use of rhetorical timing throughout the speech also connects to the pioneering mentality that is closely linked with the American persona. Shortly after announcing that we would figuratively reach the stars before midnight, President Kennedy states, “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not… and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.” By announcing that the exploration of space is inevitable no matter what we do, he connects with Americans desire to be pioneers in exploration. Continuing, Kennedy creates a role for the American public, entailing protection, freedom, and learning, stating, “we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons.”5 This not only appeals to the American persona of pioneering, but also the persona of protection for other nations. By mentioning a “banner of freedom and peace,”5 Kennedy directly describes the ideals under the United States flag, and vows that we, as protectors and pioneers, will not allow another hostile country make space a place of violence and weapons. But, this is only made possible if “we in this Nation are first,” again Kennedy alludes to the American persona of protection and pioneering, presenting the public with the idea that they stand before a time of great opportunity. Even though we have this terrific understanding of our immediate world, it is up to us to venture out into the new frontier to learn, and we are the ones that make it happen.
Kennedy continues crafting this powerful role for the American public by touching on the founding of the nation and the generations of the past. He does this by stating, “Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it–we mean to lead it.”6 By building a bridge that transcends history, connecting the audience with the pioneers who started industrial revolutions and created modern inventions, Kennedy successfully compares the founders of modern society with the immediate audience. In doing this, Kennedy proposed that it was up to this generation to ride the first wave of space exploration. Rather than being content with the accomplishments of their ancestors, it was up to this group to prove their worth, they must succeed in space. This idea is reaffirmed again when Kennedy states that although some people are wary and believe that the United States should wait before entering the race to space, “the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward–and so will space.”6 Through both of these examples, Kennedy places the current generation at the top of the list of impactful groups that are synecdoche’s for American ingenuity and pioneering ability. While also using the analogy of time to transform the exploration of space into a duty for the American public, Kennedy relies on examples of the founding of our country to evoke the pioneering persona of American citizens.
Throughout his speech, President John F. Kennedy relies on analogies of historical timing to create a perceived role for the American public and to appeal to their pioneering past. By redefining familiar aspect of navigation and relating to familiar and historic accomplishments, he successfully redraws space as a more attainable and less daunting frontier. His success in doing so allowed for great strides to be made throughout the 1960’s ultimately culminating when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon in 1969. Because of the key rhetorical devices used throughout his speech at Rice University on September 12th, 1962, Kennedy was able to offer the public a role of heroism and freedom-fighters solely by standing by in support of his mission. He was able to excite a nation by offering them a position that flattered their ego, and allowing them to prove their worth by being the generation that reached the moon.