Rhetorical Analysis Of Reagan's Speech: The Great Communicator

Thirty two years ago on June 6, 1984, at Pointe du Hoc on the northern shore of France President Ronald Reagan delivered what would be considered to be one of his greatest speeches. On the fortieth anniversary of D-Day, President Reagan spoke with raw emotion and simplicity that made the events of that longest day real to those who were not there. He honored, inspired, and touched people that he would never meet all in the short span of under fifteen minutes. The man who was dubbed the “Great Communicator” communicated a chilling message of freedom, determination, and heart to America and the rest of the world. He would use this speech to describe the events of that day forty years before in a way that made one see the bombs, and hear the gunfire. He honored the men who fought to liberate Europe with such grace and honesty that one cannot help but feel an urge to honor those men themselves. He spoke to the people and the government of the Soviet Union and stood firm as he told them to leave the territories that they had taken and force would be used if necessary. However, he called for that to be a last resort and he strongly desired for the conflict of

He brought them to that cliff in the midst of the chaos as if they were dreaming and observing the events from above. He spoke to the men who had taken the cliffs on that day and took them back to a time where they did not know whether they would ever see their families again, yet they continued their mission. He brought a certain emotion to his speaking that brought people in and got them interested in something that had happened before some of them had even been born. Peggy Noonan, the one who wrote the famous speech, said in her book, What I Saw at the Revolution, “I wanted this to have the rhythm of a rough advance,” meaning she wanted people to feel the struggle of the soldiers as they climbed those infamous cliffs (Noonan