Compare And Contrast Ford And Richard Nixon Speech

Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford both gave incredibly powerful speeches, however, they both wrote these in a very different manner. Richard Nixon was very blunt while Ford repeated himself and prolonged his speech. In the second paragraph of Nixon’s speech, he stated, “..it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the congress to justify continuing that effort” (Address Announcing Resignation). In just the second paragraph of his speech, he wants to let it be known that he is aware that being the President of the United States is not a viable option anymore. On the other hand, Ford waited until the concluding paragraph of his speech in order to fully state his explanation for pardoning Nixon. Throughout
his entire speech, however, Ford repeats himself by stating, “...many months and perhaps many more years will have to pass before Richard Nixon could obtain any fair trial by jury in any jurisdiction of the United States” (Address to the Nation Pardoning Richard Nixon). Ford further states that giving Nixon a fair trial at that point in time would have been impossible. Both speeches are very moving and the way that they chose to write them was intelectual and divine. These two speeches were both written with the same intent. The purpose was to inform the public of the reasoning behind the choices that the two men made. Nixon and Ford took incredible criticism for what they had done, and they needed to explain themselves. As Nixon stated in his speech , “To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body” (Address Announcing Resignation). Nixon knew that giving up his presidency meant giving up everything he had worked so hard for, and that is why he felt the need to explain his choice. Very similar to Nixon, Ford knew that he needed to explain himself. As Ford stated in his speech, “... The credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged” (Address to the Native Pardoning Richard Nixon). Both Nixon and Ford made unprecedented choices, and they both felt the need to explain every reason as to why they did what they did.