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Summary Of John F Kerry's Speech Against The Vietnam War

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Intro: The Vietnam War is one of the most protested wars in American history. Before the end of the war, many gave speeches and rallied against the war crimes that were being committed by American Soldiers in South East Asia. The following paper will use the Pentadic method to critique John F. Kerry’s “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” speech. Through this analysis, it will become apparent that the purpose is the most dominant element in Kerry’s speech, and that John F. Kerry’s speech meets the requirements it requires for an artifact to be considered strongly effective.

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On April 23, 1971 John F. Kerry, who served a four month tour in South Vietnam. Kerry was awarded various combat medals such as Bronze Star Medal, …show more content…

This is particularly impactful segment of the speech due to the fact that Kerry explains how the soldiers of Vietnam will not stay quiet and keep America’s so called dirty secret, but stand up and expose the wrongdoing that was done by America. For example, “We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country, we could be quiet, we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds, but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out”(John F. Kerry). Kerry also defends the people of Vietnam in the sense that they do not even fully grasp the reasoning behind the war in the first place. It is here that Kerry makes the point that the Vietnam war is a destructive waste of human life and time. Kerry then describes how he and the rest of the soldiers tried to rationalize the destruction of the Vietnam land by thinking they were in fact saving the people. It is here that Kerry personifies America by explaining how her morality was lost. He also used this time to call out the false image of American soldiers being kind and gentle, “My Lai and refused to give up the image of American soldiers who hand out chocolate bars and chewing gum”(John F.

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