President John F Kennedy's Rhetorical Strategies

President John F. Kennedy’s speech on April 10, 1962 regarding an increase in steel prices uses several rhetorical strategies such as repletion and imperative tone to persuade his audience that during this economic crisis, steel companies are raising steel prices which is irresponsible, unjustified and selfish on their part. President Kennedy also informs the middle class of America and steel industry executives who is his audience that the rising steel prices will create a further negative impact on economy and will negatively affect every American. As President Kennedy is mainly communicating with average middle class Americans, his main concern is reaching his audience and informing them how the rising steel prices affect each individual.
President Kennedy also tries to create a negative image of steel industry executives and conveys that steel company executives are “irresponsible”. President Kennedy begins his speech by directly attacking the steel industry executives as he mentions that steel industry executives, “constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest”. This opening statement instantly conveys to the reader that Kennedy feels that Steel industry is betraying the nation by raising prices and is taking advantage of the economic crisis that the nation is facing at the time. President also uses repetition throughout the second paragraph as he says starts the first three sentences with “when we” to illustrate that the nation is going through a tough time. The president also mentions “grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia” to further show that the nation is not only facing an economic crisis but is also suffering from major international crises. The president then goes on to mention the sacrifices that everyone is making as he says, “servicemen to risk their lives —and four were killed in the last two days in Viet Nam”, and “Reservists to leave their homes and families for months on end”. This shows that president Kennedy is appreciating his audience as servicemen and reservists are all middle class people which is his target audience, which is very effective because Kennedy’s target audience is feeling proud of being appreciated by the president for their sacrifices but at the same time they are also feeling hatred toward steel industry executives because they are gaining profits while the middle class is sacrificing. The president also mentions “185 million Americans” at the end of second paragraph to contrast between the size of steel executives and population of Americans which emphasizes that while few people are gaining profits by raising prices, 185 million people are suffering which is really unjustified. President Kenney’s other rhetorical strategy is using imperative tone by using words such as “actions”, “confronted”, “needed”, “necessary”, “restraint” and “sacrifice” which mainly points to Kennedy’s main argument that he does not want to decrease the steel prices but that he needs to take action against steel company executives because the nation needs to have low steel prices.
While the use of imperative tone makes President Kennedy look confident and an authoritative figure, he tries to move away from the image of an executive or commander by using words such as “our” and “we” which not only connects him to his audience but also gives his audience a sense of power since his audience is thinking that a wealthy Harvard graduate president is supporting them rather than wealthy steel industry executives. This impersonalizes Kennedy’s speech and makes it more for the reader to understand what President Kennedy wants to convey. The president goes on to tell what rising steel prices mean for every American as he mentions that the prices of consumer good would rise while some Americans also may be out of a job which directly impacts his audience. This interests the audience because now the audience realizes that the rising steel prices impact them at a personal level and this is the moment when his audience starts to support Kennedy to go against steel company executives. The president gains trust by mentioning his source “Senator McNamara” and providing facts such as “an estimated one billion dollars to the cost of our defenses”. Then in the fifth paragraph, President Kennedy uses repetition by saying what he said in his opening statement of the speech as he begins his fifth paragraph by saying “The facts of the matter are that there is no justification for an increase in the steel
prices”. President Kennedy continues to mention facts about economy and the condition of steel industry and then in the ninth paragraph he praises the union workers which again give his audience a sense of accomplishment. In the next paragraph, Kennedy mentions that the government is doing its part by “examining the significance of this action in a free, competitive economy”. The president finally concludes the speech with a very important message, “Some time ago I asked each American to consider what he would do for his country and I asked the steel companies. In the last 24 hours we had their answer”. The last sentence of the speech is really important to the speech because it does several things. The last sentence of the speech gives the reader a sense of accomplishment as the sentence compares average middle class Americans to steel industry executives as he says “In the last 24 hours we had their answer”, which makes the audience feel that as an American citizen, he or she is contributing to his nation while the steel industry executives are not which makes the average middle class audience a better citizen. The last sentence gives Kennedy’s audience a sense of accomplishment and the main reason that the last sentence is important is because it leaves an impression on the reader and the audience as to how persuasive Kennedy’s speech was and it largely leaves them with an even bigger question which is that ” Is Kennedy’s argument valid?” Overall President Kennedy used not one but several different rhetorical strategies to persuade his audience into thinking that his argument is valid and that the steel industry executives were “irresponsible” and “unjustifiable”. The President slowly works up the rhetorical strategies by first informing and building a connection with his audience. By the writing of the speech, it seems that President Kennedy had a unique flow to the argument and that he could reach out to his audience and his audience did really feel that Kennedy’s argument was valid.