Drayden Sharifi Per. 2 4/19/16 Dr. Trevor Speech/Debate Historical Speech Background I have chosen one of John F. Kennedy’s most influential speeches, which many people say, still resonates today. His “We choose to go to the moon,” speech. This speech would completely shape where the United States was going in the following decade. He started an exploration of space 60 years ago and that strive for knowing more is still with us today. This speech was delivered at the height of the Cold War and at the beginning of the Great Space Race. The US was rapidly losing the Space Race at the time when soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space. John F. Kennedy needed a way to catch up and energizing the public with this speech was the perfect way. He surely did succeed when Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk the moon in 1969. John F. Kennedy said he would do it before the end of the decade and he really did. Without him the Space program would have never expanded and we would have been destroyed in the Great Space Race. So only eight years after this speech two American Astronauts walked on the moon. This speech is a very powerful speech, which convinced the minds of America to put their power in NASA and win the Space Race. With achieving human efforts the project Apollo became a reality in 1969. NASA said that the only things comparable in construction were the Panama Canal and the Manhattan Project in war. At the time of this speech John F. Kennedy was serving as a US senator of Massachusetts. The great Space Race started with the …show more content…
Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. Web. 19 Apr. 2016. "John F. Kennedy and the Space Race." WHHA. Web. 19 Apr. 2016. "The Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy 's May 25, 1961 Speech before Congress." The Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy 's May 25, 1961 Speech before Congress. Web. 19 Apr.