Sixty one years
ago on May 25, President John F. Kennedy stood before a crowd in Houston,
Texas, and declared to the world that the United States was going to put a man
on the moon. This was 1962 and the Space Race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R was
not going well for America. The Soviets had put the first satellite in orbit
when they launched Sputnik in 1957, and then put the first human in space when
Yuri Gagarin was sent up in 1961. There was a fear that the U.S. would forever
be playing catchup in the race to the stars.
Yet in his
celebrated speech, President Kennedy thrilled the nation with his determination
to put an American on the moon. “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go
to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy,
but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are
willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to
win, and the others, too.”
It was a stirring
call to action — one that would ultimately help expand humanity’s scientific
knowledge and to pinpoint our place in the cosmos. Kennedy did not live to see
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the surface of the moon, but when they
did the astronauts brought a message of peace with them: The crew of Apollo 11
carried two medals commemorating Soviet astronauts who had lost their lives on
missions to show that this really was “one giant leap for mankind.”
To celebrate the
anniversary of that stirring speech, here are 10 other presidential speeches
that have changed the course of history.
The period for a new election
of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being
not far distant… I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to
decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to
be made. — George Washington
George
Washington’s “Farewell Address” of 1796 set the standard that U.S. presidents
would serve only two terms in office. As the most popular figure of his day,
and the first to hold this office,, Washington could have served as President
for life. Instead, he chose to step down from his position of power, putting
the good of the nation before his personal ambition. Washington had already
displayed his selflessness when, in 1783, he gave up his military power to
Congress. When King George III of England was told Washington meant to return
to private life he declared, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man
in the world."
‘A house divided against itself
cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave
and half free.
— Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
delivered his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858 when he was chosen as the
Republican nominee for the presidency. The United States was already on the
precipice of war over the matter of slavery, and Lincoln told voters that they
would not be able to ignore the issue much longer. There would have to be a
great reckoning, and it was not one that Lincoln intended to lose.
With malice toward none; with
charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his
orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations. —
Abraham Lincoln
After Lincoln won
the presidency in 1861, the United States endured a bloody civil war over the
issue of slavery. In his second Inaugural Address in 1865, with the Union at
the precipice of victory and millions of enslaved people freed by the
Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln set out his bold vision of reconstruction
and reconciliation between the North and South.
It is that the world be made
fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every
peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine
its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other
peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples
of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we
see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to
us.
— Woodrow Wilson
Despite
campaigning for President on a vow not to enter the First World War, Woodrow
Wilson found himself leading the United States into the conflict. In 1918,
looking toward the peace that would follow the war, Wilson gave a speech setting
out 14 points necessary for a lasting settlement. His plan led to the creation
of the League of Nations, which paved the way for the United Nations of today.
Let me assert my firm belief
that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. — Franklin D.
Roosevelt
In Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s first Inaugural Address in 1933, he set out clearly the dire state
of the nation amid the Great Depression. Yet he also sought to comfort
Americans and promised change. Reflecting that fear itself was the only true
obstacle, Roosevelt set out his project to rebuild the United States, the New
Deal, telling his audience that “this nation asks for action, and action now.
The United States pledges
before you — and therefore before the world, its determination to help solve
the fearful atomic dilemma — to devote its entire heart and mind to find the
way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his
death, but consecrated to his life.
— Dwight
Eisenhower
In 1953, the
United States and the Soviet Union were facing each other in a Cold War that
threatened at any moment to turn into a destructive conflict of atomic warfare.
In his “Atoms for Peace” speech, Eisenhower opened up nuclear technology to the
world, instead of guarding it secretly. Trading fear for knowledge, this helped
demystify the new science, which paved the way for the development of nuclear
energy around the globe.
And so, my fellow Americans:
ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your
country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you,
but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
— John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
laid down a challenge to Americans and to the world in his Inaugural Address of
1961. His speech set the tone for a government that would bring the nation
together and foster a global community. Promoting service over selfishness, he
promised the country that no challenge would be too great if people worked
together.
We cannot, we must not, refuse
to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may
desire to participate in… It is all of us, who must overcome the crippling
legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome. —
Lyndon Johnson
The United States
in 1965 (as it is now) was struggling with issues of racial injustice. After
600 civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, were brutally attacked by state
troopers, the nation was shocked into action. President Johnson went to
Congress and pressed for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The new law
would guarantee equal rights to vote to all U.S. citizens by abolishing
discriminatory voting laws.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall! — Ronald Reagan
The Cold War had
dragged on for 40 years by the time President Reagan stood to speak beside the
Brandenburg Gate in a divided Berlin in 1987. Outlining simple demands, he
challenged the Soviet Union to speed up its promises of reform and freedom. It
marked the closing chapter of an age of uncertainty, and promised better
relations between the two global superpowers.
For when we have faced down
impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try
or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed
that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. — Barack Obama
In a campaign
speech in New Hampshire in 2008, Barack Obama hit on a phrase that channeled
the optimism of America. He would later repeat it in his acceptance speech
delivered on November 4, 2008 in Chicago after his victory.. He reminded
Americans, “A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world
was connected by our own science and imagination… America, we have come so
far.”
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