Summary:
A summary of John F. Kennedy's presidential inaugral speech in 1961. The speech contained the famous line, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
On January 20, 1961 a very talented and brilliant man once said, "ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." This statement is famous everywhere along with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King's I have A Dream speech. In John F. Kennedy's moving inaugural speech he presents promises and revisions that reveal a bit about his time period.
In Kennedy's inaugural address he pledges to help the people around the world who "struggle to break the bonds of misery." He wishes to help these people because it is the right thing to do. This shows that there was much poverty around the world at the time. Even the rich needed help. Like Kennedy said, "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, then it cannot save the few who are rich." Kennedy also wanted to assure the survival and success of liberty. He wanted every nation to know that America would do anything to preserve and spread liberty. In his inaugural address, Kennedy uses the oxymoron "peaceful revolution." He was referring to the peace he wanted to maintain with Mexico. Likewise Kennedy wanted to pursue and attain world peace.
In his 1961 inaugural speech, Kennedy states numerous times the achievement of world peace. He understood that peace would be difficult to accomplish.
Therefore he made a request to the enemy to begin anew a quest for peace. He states that the only way to achieve peace would be to have "arms sufficient beyond doubt" because only then will they be certain to never be used on each other. Yet peace is a distant dream because both sides are frantic to not be outdone by the opposing force. Which goes back to what Kennedy said, "let us begin anew." A way to achieve harmony is to "let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate." Another way to attain serenity according to Kennedy, is to have both sides explore what will unite them instead of dwelling on what separates them. Lastly, a way to unite the world would be to explore the endless wonders of science together. Kennedy explains this specific road to tranquility by using parallelism. Kennedy's words on obtaining peace suggest that a war, the cold war precisely, was occurring.
John F. Kennedy is considered to be one of America's greatest presidents. It's not hard to see why with his elaborate, inspirational speeches. Kennedy loved America and wanted the best for her, peace, freedom, unity, and liberty. It was JFK that said these motivational words, "United, there is little we cannot do...Divided there is little we can do."
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