Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis Speech Analysis

Disaster Averted
Can anyone imagine waking up every morning for two weeks not knowing if the world you knew before it is still standing, or if thousands of lives have just banished with the click of a button somewhere in your nation? This was John F. Kennedy’s reality during the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy gave the speech Cuban Missile Crisis Address, from his office, to be televised and transmitted through radio by thousands of American citizens, Cuban people, and international leaders all over the globe. John F. Kennedy’s Cuban Missile Crisis address to the nation speech solidifies his legacy among the people of the United States of America because he is able to demonstrate his capacity to confront this issue, ease the American

The Cuban Missile Address is delivered October 22nd, 1962 in the Presidential office through a major radio and television address (Podell, Anzovin, and States United 705). Historically, it is worth mentioning that United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro, who was at the time Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, in at least two occasions known as the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose, because of his communist regime and close relationship with the Soviet Union (Pious). Then, after the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to send support and weapons to Cuba, because of the fear of another attack to his person/regime, Nikita did by sending missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, hence, this major crisis that lasted 14 days ending October 28, 1962 (Deinema and Leydesdorff). In addition, the target audience for this speech is the American people as President starts his speech with the phrase, “Good evening, my fellow citizens” (Kennedy); however, the secondary audience would be the Cuban people, whom he describes as captive people, the Soviet Union leaders, whom he directly addresses and even quotes, and Fidel Castro of course (Kennedy). As noted above, the cultural, socio-political context is important to understand the seriousness of this crisis and