thesis statement for john f kennedy

John F. Kennedy Assassination Essay

Introduction, works cited.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination is considered to be one of the most mysterious events in the history of the United States of America. The date — November 22, 1963 — is known to everyone as a shocking and tragic day. It was found out that the gunman who shot John F. Kennedy (JFK) was Lee Harvey Oswald. There are a lot of theories why he did it, who were his companions, and what was the reason for the murder. John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Some scholars consider that there are no conspiracy theories. All of them are nothing else but just hoaxes. Researchers prefer to believe that the only conspiracy may be the fact that a small number of organizations rule the whole world (Marshall 1). Nevertheless, the reality shows that conspiracy theories do exist and that they are controversial. Conspiracy theories are easy to claim, but it is also difficult to dethrone them. Some people consider them to be simply entertainment. The word “conspiracy” means something secret, a hidden plan to conduct an illegal activity (Goertzel par.11).

The conspiracy theory of the JFK assassination may be further subdivided into many branches. Every separate branch represents a particular version of who, how, and what for has organized the crime. The number of culprits is immense. The list has been filled up for almost fifty years. The details of John F. Kennedy’s death were unknown, and they were turned into speculations and conspiracies immediately after the shot. A lot of reporters were eager to write the best reporting in their lives. That is why they started investigating and finding out what were the possible theories. They were the founders of the whole culture and cult, which entwined the assassination (George 136).

The Central Intelligence Agency belongs to the group of one of the most popular suspects. This version was developed based on the intense relations between the President and the director of the CIA of those times — Allen W. Dulles. The theory came into existence because John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, thought at first that the CIA handled the assassination. However, he changed his mind later. The aim of the CIA under Dulles was to fight and win the leadership in some of the foreign countries (Iran or Guatemala, for instance). The means of achieving goals were mainly armed attacks. When Kennedy became the president, everything became different. He preferred more diplomatic ways and at the same time, Kennedy was not absolutely against the CIA’s actions. The first great division of interests took place when Kennedy refused to support the Bay of Pigs invasion, the primary target of which was Fidel Castro. Dulles’ failure cost him his position. It was also noted, that once John F. Kennedy made a statement in a New York Times, introducing the idea that he would break the CIA into thousands of pieces. Thus, it would be no surprise that the CIA would choose its method of doing things and getting rid of a person, who stood in their way (Burgos 1). It is only one part of the conspiracy theory surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Leroy Fletcher Prouty was a Chief of Special Operations under Kennedy’s presidency. He was the colonel of the US Armed Forces. After Party had retired, he became a critic of the foreign policy of the U.S. He also made a significant claim about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Colonel Fletcher Pourty had a real knowledge of what was going on in the government. He acknowledged that the President was killed because of his policies concerning Vietnam. John F. Kennedy was a wise man, who understood that the invasion of Vietnam would become a disaster. Unfortunately, he was the only one who thought so among other officials.

John F. Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum 263, the central point of which was the total withdrawal of the U.S. military groups and all other personnel from Vietnam by 1965. This order did not coincide with the interests of the military and the CIA officials. That is why, according to Prouty’s claim, an organized group was formed to remove Kennedy from his position. The Vietnam War was an extremely profitable operation. The United States could not afford to start a large-scale war in the age of nuclear weapons. The only possible decision was starting a small, unimportant one for the rest of the world war. There was no significant object or city in Vietnam, the siege of which might have led to the declaration of a great war. Such activity is also called “stateless terrorism.” One can only imagine how Vietnam could resist a highly developed U.S. Armed Forces. John F. Kennedy understood all of this and was against those policies. Military commanders urged Kennedy several times to change his policies, but the President constantly refused (Prouty 8). Probably, he had to pay his life for this decision.

The conspiracy theory of the CIA involvement in the JFK assassination still lacks one part — the connection with the gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. He may be regarded as the last constituent of this jigsaw puzzle. The most important question was whether Oswald was the CIA agent. According to Newman, Oswald has always been interested Central Intelligence Agency since he defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and till the end of his life. Of course, the CIA officials refused the claim that Oswald was somehow connected with the agency. On the contrary, the testimony of James Willcott, the CIA finance officer, proved the fact that a kind of relations took place (Newman 12). During the time spent in USSR, Lee Harvey Oswald might become a KGB agent, or just interested in communist ideas.

The conspiracy theory under consideration should be thought of as a controversial one. The claim that the JFK assassination was organized by the CIA is of great significance. That is why it was impossible to prove it. In my opinion, the creators of this theory were looking for success and popularity. On the other hand, there could be a significant number of other ways to present the assassination. Such facts as Prourty’s evidence, Willcott’s testimony, and the simple observation of history make one think that the claim may be right.

There is no doubt that such statements are made with special purposes. Maybe some researcher has been looking for truth, and that is the main reason why the JFK assassination conspiracy theory exists. The CIA has its enemies as well. Probably such avouchment should have undermined the CIA’s reputation.

In my opinion, too many years have already passed to find out the truth. The described conspiracy theory has the right to existence, but I will not affirm that it represents the truth.

Burgos, Evan 2013, An inside job: CIA a suspect for some in JFK’s killing . Web.

George, Alice. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American Memory , London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Goertzel, Ted. “The Conspiracy Meme.” Skeptical Inquirer 35.1 (2011): n.pag. Web. 2015.

Marshall, Andrew 2012, No Conspiracy Theory — A Small Group of Companies Have Enormous Power over the World. 2015. Web.

Newman, John. Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth About the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK , New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013. Print.

Prourty, Leroy Fletcher. JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy , New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013. Print.

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John F. Kennedy

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 13, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became one of the youngest U.S. presidents, as well as the first Roman Catholic to hold the office. Born into one of America’s wealthiest families, he parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952. 

As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history.

John F. Kennedy’s Early Life

Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy (known as Jack) was the second of nine children. His parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy, hailed from two of Boston’s most prominent Irish Catholic political families. Despite persistent health problems throughout his childhood and teenage years (he would later be diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Addison’s disease), Jack led a privileged youth. He attended private schools such as Canterbury and Choate and spent summers in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod.

Joe Kennedy, a hugely successful businessman and an early supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt , was appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934 and named U.S. ambassador to Great Britain in 1937. As a student at Harvard University, Jack traveled in Europe as his father’s secretary. His senior thesis about Britain’s unpreparedness for war was later published as an acclaimed book, Why England Slept (1940).

Watch the three-episode documentary event, Kennedy . Available to stream now.

Did you know? John F. Kennedy's Senate career got off to a rocky start when he refused to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy, a personal friend of the Kennedy family whom the Senate voted to censure in 1954 for his relentless pursuit of suspected communists. In the end, though he planned to vote against McCarthy, Kennedy missed the vote when he was hospitalized after back surgery.

Jack joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years later was sent to the South Pacific, where he was given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat. In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy helped some of his marooned crew back to safety and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism. His older brother, Joe Jr., was not so fortunate: He was killed in August 1944 when his Navy airplane exploded on a secret mission against a German rocket-launching site. A grieving Joe Sr. told Jack it was his duty to fulfill the destiny once intended for Joe Jr.—to become the first Catholic president of the United States.

JFK’s Beginnings in Politics

Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Jack left the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year later, he returned to Boston, preparing a run for Congress in 1946. As a moderately conservative Democrat, and backed by his father’s fortune, Jack won his party’s nomination handily and carried the mostly working-class Eleventh District by nearly three to one over his Republican opponent in the general election. He entered the 80th Congress in January 1947, at the age of 29, and immediately attracted attention (as well as some criticism from older members of the Washington establishment) for his youthful appearance and relaxed, informal style.

Kennedy won reelection to the House of Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952 ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy married the beautiful socialite and journalist Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years later, he was forced to undergo a painful operation on his back. While recovering from the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling book, Profiles in Courage , which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. (The book was later revealed to be mostly the work of Kennedy’s longtime aide, Theodore Sorenson.)

Kennedy’s Road to Presidency

After nearly earning his party’s nomination for vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, Kennedy announced his candidacy for president on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary challenge from the more liberal Hubert Humphrey and chose the Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, as his running mate. In the general election, Kennedy faced a difficult battle against his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice president under the popular Dwight D. Eisenhower . 

Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his performance (and telegenic appearance) in the first-ever televised presidential debates, watched by millions of viewers. In November’s election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin—fewer than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes cast—becoming the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States.

With his beautiful young wife and their two small children (Caroline, born in 1957, and John Jr., born just weeks after the election), Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and glamour to the White House . In his inaugural address, given on January 20, 1961, the new president called on his fellow Americans to work together in the pursuit of progress and the elimination of poverty, but also in the battle to win the ongoing Cold War against communism around the world. Kennedy’s famous closing words expressed the need for cooperation and sacrifice on the part of the American people: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Challenges

An early crisis in the foreign affairs arena occurred in April 1961, when Kennedy approved the plan to send 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Intended to spur a rebellion that would overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro , the mission ended in failure, with nearly all of the exiles captured or killed. 

That June, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city of Berlin, which had been divided after World War II between Allied and Soviet control. Two months later, East German troops began erecting a wall to divide the city. Kennedy sent an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of U.S. support, and would deliver one of his most famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963.

Kennedy clashed again with Khrushchev in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis . After learning that the Soviet Union was constructing a number of nuclear and long-range missile sites in Cuba that could pose a threat to the continental United States, Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba. 

The tense standoff lasted nearly two weeks before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet missile sites in Cuba in return for America’s promise not to invade the island and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and other sites close to Soviet borders. In July 1963, Kennedy won his greatest foreign affairs victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him and Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in signing a nuclear test ban treaty. In Southeast Asia, however, Kennedy’s desire to curb the spread of communism led him to escalate U.S. involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, even as privately he expressed his dismay over the situation.

Kennedy’s Leadership at Home

During his first year in office, Kennedy oversaw the launch of the Peace Corps, which would send young volunteers to underdeveloped countries all over the world. Otherwise, he was unable to achieve much of his proposed legislation during his lifetime, including two of his biggest priorities: income tax cuts and a civil rights bill. Slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, events forced Kennedy into action, spurring him to send federal troops to support the desegregation of the University of Mississippi after riots there left two dead and many others injured. The following summer, Kennedy announced his intention to propose a comprehensive civil rights bill and endorsed the massive March on Washington that took place that August.

Kennedy held enormous popularity, both at home and abroad, and his family drew famous comparisons to King Arthur’s court at Camelot. His brother Bobby served as his attorney general, while the youngest Kennedy son, Edward (Ted), was elected to Jack’s former Senate seat in 1962. Jackie Kennedy became an international icon of style, beauty and sophistication, though stories of her husband’s numerous marital infidelities (and his personal association with members of organized crime) would later emerge to complicate the Kennedys’ idyllic image.

JFK’s Assassination

On November 22, 1963, the president and his wife landed in Dallas; he had spoken in San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth the day before. From the airfield, the party then traveled in a motorcade to the Dallas Trade Mart, the site of Jack’s next speaking engagement. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., as the motorcade passed through downtown Dallas, shots rang out . Bullets struck Kennedy twice, in the neck and head; he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.

Authorities arrested 24-old Lee Harvey Oswald, known to have Communist sympathies, for the killing. But he was shot and fatally wounded two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being led to jail. Almost immediately, alternative theories of Kennedy’s assassination emerged—including conspiracies allegedly run by the KGB , the Mafia and the U.S. military-industrial complex, among others. A presidential commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren concluded that Oswald had acted alone, but speculation and debate over the assassination have persisted.

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JFK: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE MAN AND THE IMAGE

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The Relationship Between Confidence and Accuracy in Clinical Assessment of Psychiatric Patients' Potential for Violence 

The unfinished business of John F. Kennedy’s vision for world peace

Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Quinnipiac University

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Philip A. Goduti, Jr. does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Less than a week after her husband’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, Jackie Kennedy granted an interview with esteemed political writer Theodore White for Life magazine, one of the leading national publications of its day.

Determined to protect the legacy of the fallen president, Jackie likened the unfulfilled promise of his short-lived administration to the mythical days of King Arthur’s court as portrayed in “ Camelot ,” a popular Broadway musical at the time and one of Kennedy’s favorites.

“Don’t let it be forgot,” Kennedy told White, “that for one brief, shining moment there was Camelot.”

Though historians have since revealed many of Kennedy’s shortcomings , one fact is undeniable. From his 1960 campaign against Richard Nixon to his little more than 1,000 days as president, Kennedy’s boldness defined the times.

In my view as a scholar of Kennedy’s life, he set the modern-day standard for public service that is all but absent in the 2024 presidential election dominated by the legal woes of Donald Trump and the age of 81-year-old President Joe Biden .

Kennedy’s lofty rhetoric, coupled with his energetic youth, propelled the nation into what he termed the “ New Frontier ,” the campaign slogan he used to inspire ordinary citizens to make the world a better place at a time of Cold War nuclear tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

“Let us begin anew … remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof,” Kennedy said during his inaugural address in 1961. “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

Decorated war hero

Part of the Camelot myth starts with Kennedy’s military service during World War II.

Due to a myriad of illnesses, Kennedy was deemed unfit to join the U.S. Army and was able to serve in the Navy only after his father, the wealthy businessman Joseph Kennedy who was U.S. ambassador to Great Britain during the early war years, intervened on his behalf. Shortly after joining the Navy, Kennedy became commander of a patrol torpedo boat stationed near the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

On Aug. 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed his boat and sliced it in half, immediately killing two of his men. Kennedy later told an interviewer that when he saw the destroyer pass in front of him he thought, “This is how it feels to be killed.”

The 26-year-old Kennedy led his crew of 11 survivors on a 3-mile swim while towing a badly burned crew member to safety by holding a strap of a life vest between his teeth.

After several days of hiding on an uninhabited island with very little food and water, he was able to get help by etching a message on a coconut that was given to two Solomon Islanders who were patrolling the area in a canoe for Allied forces. They brought the message to a nearby British base, and Kennedy and his men were subsequently rescued.

Once safe, Kennedy sent a note home to his family saying that many people thought they were dead, but “fortunately they misjudged the durability of a Kennedy.”

Kennedy received a Purple Heart medal for being wounded in combat and remains the only U.S. president to receive the honor. JFK also earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his “extremely heroic conduct” after his boat was sunk.

That coconut was later set on a wooden base and used as a paper weight on Kennedy’s desk after his narrow victory over Republican Richard M. Nixon in the 1960 presidential election .

Baptism by fire

Even though he stumbled in his first year as president, Kennedy learned, made changes and initiated bold measures such as a moral stand on civil rights and a plan for peace with the Soviet Union.

Kennedy’s first major blunder was the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Troubled by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and his relationship with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev , Kennedy approved a U.S. invasion of the Caribbean island by using about 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles who also wanted to overthrow Castro. The attempted coup was launched on April 17, 1961, and was defeated in less than two days by Cuban armed forces.

The botched invasion led Khrushchev to believe that Kennedy was young, naive and weak. That line of thinking played out two months later at the Vienna summit , where the Soviet leader demanded the removal of U.S. troops from West Berlin.

Kennedy refused, but Khrushchev retaliated by starting construction of the Berlin Wall , which became the symbol of the Cold War divisions between Western European democracies and Eastern European countries controlled by communist governments.

An unfulfilled legacy

Kennedy was a Cold Warrior, but he was also a realist.

In October 1962, Kennedy learned that the Soviet Union had placed missiles in Cuba that could strike the U.S. Kennedy’s advisers urged him to invade Cuba, this time using U.S. military forces.

On the brink of nuclear war, Kennedy ignored his advisers and enacted a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent the Soviet Union from shipping any more military supplies to Castro. It was a bold move that went against Cold War orthodoxy, which would have called for a stronger response to Khrushchev’s actions. Instead, the crisis made it clear that both sides feared nuclear retaliation from the other.

Eight months later, on June 11, 1963 , Kennedy gave a speech at American University that proposed peace with the Soviet Union.

“I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living,” he told the crowd. “For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

In my view, this speech is perhaps his greatest legacy, because it stressed that peace was a process and led to a limited nuclear test ban treaty . Signed in 1963 by the U.S., Great Britain and the Soviet Union, the agreement prohibited tests of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater.

It also put Kennedy and Khrushchev on a path to end Cold War tensions between the two superpowers. Those negotiations came to an abrupt halt after Kennedy’s assassination. The Cold War lasted for another 30 years until Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall was torn down and communist regimes in Eastern Europe were booted out after free elections.

He served only 1,036 days as president, and much like the myth of Camelot, Kennedy’s legacy remains an unfulfilled dream for peace around the world.

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1.2: John F. Kennedy's "Inaugural Address"

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Here, you will find the "Inaugural Address" by John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The essay is is a ..docx file. I have also included the original recording via YouTube. I recommend either saving to your drive for future use. Otherwise, you will not have the file to look at later. Either way, you should taking notes on the digital copy on your computer, or taking notes on the story on a separate piece of paper.

Author's Bio

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy

Links to an external site. (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), or JFK , was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was President during the rising tesnions of the Cold War between Russia and the United States and the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

While going over the reading , keep these questions/ideas in mind:

• What are some themes/ messages that you see in the text?
• What does this speech make you feel/think of?
• Do you see examples of Ethos(credibility), Pathos(emotion), Logos(Logic), and Kairos (Rhetorical Situation)?
• Do you see examples of the rhetorical strategies from the Rhetorical Strategies PowerPoint?
• What are some ways this text is convincing?
• Can you begin to connect to the words in the text. What about these word choices, imagery, allusion, makes you feel a particular way? Explain.

Essay 1 Prompt

What does it mean.

How does the text use specific rhetorical strategies to deliver its intended theme/message?

TITLE/AUTHOR+THEME +STRATEGIES=Thesis

Requirements:

• Proper MLA Format
• 3-5 pages (Full pages)
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Lecture on Rhetoric-JFK's "Inaugural Speech" 00:08:43

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Home > CIPS > epo > HSP > Honors Sch Theses > 512

Honors Scholar Theses

Kennedy's crisis: how john f. kennedy used history to prevent armageddon.

Jordan L. Cerbone Follow

Date of Completion

Fall 12-15-2016

Thesis Advisor(s)

Joel R. Blatt

Honors Major

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Diplomatic History | Military History | United States History

The Cuban Missile Crisis may be equated to a dangerous game of chess played between two powerful rival nations, the United States and the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers, including all Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended an air strike to destroy the Cuban missiles. Although Kennedy overruled them, he was nevertheless able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis through a combination of brilliant intuition and successful diplomacy. The mainstream consensus is that Kennedy’s personality was responsible for ending the crisis amicably. Consequently, Americans can consider the Cuban Missile Crisis as Kennedy’s crisis.

This thesis explores the role of John F. Kennedy’s relationship with his father and elder brother, his experiences in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and the insightful knowledge he acquired through studying the works of noted historical figures and authors. It will explain how these experiences contributed to Kennedy’s interpretation of good leadership and assisted him in the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Recommended Citation

Cerbone, Jordan L., "Kennedy's Crisis: How John F. Kennedy Used History to Prevent Armageddon" (2016). Honors Scholar Theses . 512. https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/512

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — John F. Kennedy — A Rhetorical Analysis of the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy

A Rhetorical Analysis of The Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy

• Categories: John F. Kennedy

About this sample

Words: 509 |

Published: Sep 12, 2018

Words: 509 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

• Kennedy, J. F. (1961). Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy. The White House. https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/inaugural-address-washington-dc-january-20-1961
• Cohen, J. L. (2013). Cold War civil rights: Race and the image of American democracy. Princeton University Press.
• Dallek, R. (2003). An unfinished life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. Little, Brown.
• Goldzwig, S. R., & Dionisopoulos, G. N. (2009). Presidential rhetoric and the public agenda: Constructing the war on drugs. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 39(1), 53-73.
• Griffin, M. J. (2017). Understanding JFK's inaugural address. Political Science Quarterly, 132(3), 471-499.
• Leff, M. C. (1990). The chiasmus and the rhetoric of the Kennedy administration. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2(2), 217-242.
• Matthews, C. (2011). Jack Kennedy: Elusive hero. Simon and Schuster.
• Schlesinger, A. M. (2002). A thousand days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Mariner Books.
• Smith, C. R. (2016). How John F. Kennedy changed the world. ABC-CLIO.
• Zarefsky, D. (1992). President Kennedy's Inaugural Address: Genre, Performance, and Rhetorical Situation. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 78(4), 369-386.

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Home > STUDENTS > THESES > 4212

Masters Theses

A rhetorical analysis of john f. kennedy's "inaugural address" of january 29, 1961.

Marjorie T. Hutton , Eastern Illinois University

Degree Name

Master of Science in Education (MSEd)

Semester of Degree Completion

Thesis director.

Jon J. Hopkins

Recommended Citation

Hutton, Marjorie T., "A Rhetorical Analysis of John F. Kennedy's "Inaugural Address" of January 29, 1961" (1967). Masters Theses . 4212. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/4212

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John F. Kennedy

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Lesson 1: Defining Political Courage

“In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience – the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men – each man must decide for himself the course he will follow."  -- John F. Kennedy

• To have students gain a better understanding of the concept of political courage.
• To apply this concept of political courage to a contemporary or historical person and issue when writing his/her essay.
• Give students a few minutes to reflect upon and define for themselves the meaning of the word 'courage.'
• Have students share and discuss their various definitions of courage. Ask students to distinguish between differing types of courage i.e. physical, entrepreneurial, and political courage.
• Discuss with them the following questions:
• Is courage a desired trait for our elected leaders to possess? Why or why not?
• Is there a lack of political courage among our elected leaders today?
• Has the definition of political courage changed over time?

4. Have students read excerpts from chapter one of John F. Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage (Please refer to  Appendix 2 ) and answer the questions that follow.

5. Discuss with students if and/or how they would amend their initial definitions of political courage after reading these excerpts from Profiles in Courage.

6. Have the students present their 'finished' definition of political courage to the class.

Questions to think about from Chapter One of Profiles in Courage

Below is a list of questions for students to consider before and/or after reading the excerpts from the first chapter of Profiles in Courage.   

• What are some positive and negative consequences for Senators and Congressmen who adopt the sentiment "the way to get along, is to go along?"
• Are Senators and Congressmen rightfully entitled to ignore the demands of their constituents even if they were able and willing to do so?
• Which of the following statements do you most agree with and why?
• The primary responsibility of a Senator is to represent the views of his state.
• Senators are not special leaders for our state or section, but members of the deliberative assembly of one nation with one interest.

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The Summers of Theory

• For the Media

Not long ago and in certain small circles of academic life, the word “theory” conveyed a special magic. It signified both sophistication and freedom, elevating its devotees into a rarefied world of European ideas that would bestow the gift of insight into the hidden truth of language, or culture, or history.

Two meanings were intertwined even if they often ran at cross purposes. On the one hand, “theory” carried a hint of privilege, the cultivation of exquisite skills in reading and interpretation that were accessible only to an elite. On the other hand, it implied the hopeful idea of an emancipatory practice, since presumably anyone who wished to “do theory” did so because it promised, someday and somehow, to link up with the moral and political business of transforming the world. If theory was the question, practice was the answer. But even in the years of high enthusiasm for theory, the answer seemed forever deferred for another day.

“Theory” once conveyed a special magic, signifying both sophistication and freedom.

Today, now that the passion for theory has been largely spent, it can be hard to explain why it was once felt to be so fascinating. Surely its exotic pedigree played a role. Theory, after all, was not the name for a specific doctrine; it was a serviceable if somewhat baggy term for various ideas and intellectual movements that arrived as imports from the European Continent. The high avatars of theory—Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser—were mostly French, and they had received a rigorous training in the European philosophical canon.

But when their work was translated into English, it seldom received a warm welcome among members of the Anglophone philosophical profession, who tended to see it as an interloper, an unruly child who had scant respect for the established standards of clarity or rational argument. It found a far more hospitable welcome in departments of literature, where it metamorphosed into “French theory,” a rich brew of ideas that left many graduate students intoxicated if often bewildered, though it was best to keep one’s confusion to oneself. In the 1970s and ’80s theory swept through the humanities like a new gospel. Many were converted, some resisted, but few could doubt that they were living through a time of intellectual revolution. Like many revolutions, however, what began in hope eventually petrified into dogma. “Theory” became a fashion, and then lost its shine.

The Summer of Theory is almost the title of both a film and a book (in the film, the summer becomes “long”). They address a story that is far less familiar to Anglophone readers: how theory came to Germany, where it ignited passionate debate among intellectuals and artists and inspired new ways of thinking about literature and society. Both the film and the book are ingeniously crafted, and they are such a delight to watch or to read that they awaken summertime joy even as they speak to weighty themes.