Hoping it's "au revoir, Perkins"

We're about to go on a cruise along the northern Norwegian coast in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights.

So I don't expect to be doing much blogging or tweeting over the next few days. However, I do very much hope that, for regular visitors, the answer to Jonathan Miller's question will be the opposite of Peter Cook's reply in this classic sketch from Beyond the Fringe:

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50 years since John F Kennedy asked not... (3) Modelled for the media


This is the third in a series of posts to mark the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy's inaugural speech on 20th January 1961. The first two were:
Now that the BBC website has gone live with an article and notes I wrote on the speech (HERE), I feel free to reproduce one of the points made in it, accompanied by another edited clip from the speech (above) and transcript (below).

The following section from the piece on the BBC website commends Kennedy for following 'the first rule of speech-preparation: analyse your audience'.

If you wonder where that came from, I have to confess that that I was immodest enough to have taken it from my own books Lend Me Your Ears (pp. 280-286) and Speech-making and Presentation Made Easy (pp. 34-37).

First inaugural designed for the media?
Impressive though the rhetoric and imagery may have been, what really made the speech memorable was that it was the first inaugural address by a US president to follow the first rule of speech-preparation: analyse your audience - or, to be more precise at a time when mass access to television was in its infancy, analyse your audiences.

In the most famous fictional speech of all time, Mark Antony had shown sensitivity to his different audiences in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by asking his "Friends, Romans, countrymen" to lend him their ears. But Kennedy had many more audiences in mind than those who happened to be in Washington that day.

His countrymen certainly weren't left out, appearing as they did in the opening and towards the end with his most famous contrast of all: "Ask not..." But he knew, perhaps better than any previous US president, that local Americans were no longer the only audience that mattered. The age of a truly global mass media had dawned, which meant that what he said would be seen, heard or reported everywhere in the world.

At the height of the Cold War, Kennedy also had a foreign policy agenda that he wanted to be heard everywhere in the world. So the different segments of the speech were specifically targeted at a series of different audiences:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill"
"To those new nations whom we welcome to the ranks of the free"
"To those in the huts and villages of half the globe"
"To our sister republics south of the border"
"To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations"
"Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary"

The following day, there was nothing on the front pages of two leading US newspapers, The New York Times and the Washington Post to suggest that the countrymen in his audience had been particularly impressed by the speech - neither of them referred to any of the lines above that have become so famous.

The fact that so much of the speech is still remembered around the world 50 years later is a measure of Kennedy's success in knowing exactly what he wanted to say, how best to say it and, perhaps most important of all, to whom he should say it.

More on JFK's target audiences
In fact, Kennedy aimed his speech at twice as many audiences as those mentioned in the above extract from the BBC website. You can listen to edited clips in the video at the top of the page and follow them in the transcript below:

VIPs on the platform & US citizens
Vice-president Johnson, Mr Speaker, Mr Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice-president Nixon, President Truman, Reverend clergy, fellow citkzens…

Everyone in the world
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans…

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill …

Allies
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share…

Emerging nations
To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free…

Third world
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery…

Latin America
To our sister republics south of our border…

North & South America
Let all our neighbors know…

United Nations
To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations…

Communist countries
Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary…

US citizens
And so, my fellow Americans…

Citizens outside the USA
My fellow citizens of the world…

US + Non-US citizens of the world
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world…

Postscript: Kennedy's fashion legacy
Apart from putting much effort into what he wanted to say to whom, JFK also put quite a bit of thought into what the inaugural would look like in the global media. Jackie Kennedy's white coat was deliberately selected to ensure that she would stand out on a platform mainly populated by men in dark clothes.

And, the heavy snow in Washington the day before didn't prevent him from appearing without an overcoat or a hat. The former was made possible by his decision to wear thermal underwear - which presumably kept him warm enough not to bother wearing a hat.

This may have been all very well for him, but his hat-free head marked kicked off a new era for men in the Western world, in which routine hat wearing went out of fashion - look at any picture of a football crowd before 1961, and you'll see that the men all wore hats or caps. As a result, half the population has been condemned to being colder in winter than we'd have been without Kennedy's fashion legacy.

So, however much I may admire his rhetoric, I am definitely not an admirer of his lack of headwear.

Related posts
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50 years since John F Kennedy asked not... (2) Which lines were noticed on the day?

This is the second in a series of posts to mark the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy's inaugural speech in 1961, the first of which was 'Sounds of silence.'


My first book on public speaking described the main rhetorical techniques that trigger applause in political speeches (Our Masters' Voices, 1984), the story of which can be found in the Claptrap series (HERE).

Quotability
It included a chapter on 'Quotability', which looked at how the lines that get applauded are much more likely to be noticed and reported in the media that those that don't - and that a tiny minority of these are remembered long enough to end up in dictionaries of quotations.

Given the central role of Barack Obama's oratory as he emerged from nowhere via the DNC in 2004 through an inspiring election campaign to become US president, I was intrigued to see various commentators complaining that his inaugural speech wasn't up to his usual standard. For one thing, the critics said, it was a bit short on memorable quotes compared with JKF's masterful effort back in 1961.

This intrigued me enough to check back on the front pages of two leading American newspapers, the New York Times and the Washington Post to see which lines from Kennedy's inaugural speech had been quoted on their front pages the following day (21 January 1961).

To my surprise, the answer was none of them (HERE), even though quite a few of Kennedy's inaugural lines lines not only made it into dictionaries of quotations, but will be aired again this week as the media get into the swing of commemorating the speech's 5oth anniversary.

The audience got it right
But if you look at the lines that were applauded by the audience who where actually there on the day (see video sequence above and transcript below), you'll see that they did a rather better job than some of the media when it came to spotting the lines that were eventually to become 'memorable'.

Those in Washington that day were sufficiently moved by eleven of the things Kennedy said to react with a positive physical response (applause). And, I predict, you'll certainly have seen many or most of them before - in which case, it supports the point made about the connection between clapping and quotability in Our Master's Voices.

The power of contrasts
Given the emphasis in my teaching and writing on the effectiveness of different types of contrast in the armoury of rhetorical techniques, an added bonus for me is that contrasts featured in about half of the examples that were applauded - including some of the most famous quotations of all.

Where did the tiger come from?
In the midst of Kennedy's flourishes of imagery in some of these lines, there's one that still puzzles me. The audience would presumably not have applauded if they hadn't both understood and approved of what he meant when he said "those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside."

But to my British ears, it's always struck me as the oddest metaphor in the speech and my attempts to find out where it came from have so far been unsuccessful. If any readers can enlighten me, it would be great to hear from you.

P.S. More on the tiger
Thanks to the reader who replied with this email:

"I think Kennedy was alluding to Churchill's remark: 'the dictators ride to and fro on tigers they dare not dismount and the tigers are getting hungry.' I wish I could find out when and where he said it. I wonder if it was a speech in the USA."

Can anyone else help on this?


Text of applauded lines
Let the word go forth
from this time and place,
to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed
to a new generation of Americans—
born in this century,
tempered by war,
disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,
proud of our ancient heritage—
and unwilling to witness or permit
the slow undoing
of those human rights
to which this nation has always been committed,
and to which we are committed today
at home and around the world.
[Applause]

Let every nation know,
whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price,
bear any burden,
meet any hardship,
support any friend,
oppose any foe
to assure the survival
and the success of liberty.
[Applause]

To those new states whom we welcome
to the ranks of the free,
we pledge our word
that one form of colonial control
shall not have passed away
merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.
We shall not always expect to find them
supporting our view.
But we shall always hope to find them
strongly supporting their own freedom-
-and to remember that, in the past,
those who foolishly sought power
by riding the back of the tiger
ended up inside.
[Applause]

To those people
in the huts and villages
of half the globe
struggling to break the bonds of mass misery,
we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves,
for whatever period is required—
not because the communists may be doing it,
not because we seek their votes,
but because it is right.
If a free society
cannot help the many who are poor,
it cannot save the few who are rich.
[Applause]

Let all our neighbors know
that we shall join with them
to oppose aggression or subversion
anywhere
in the Americas.
And let every other power know
that this Hemisphere intends to remain
the master of its own house.
[Applause]

So let us begin anew—
remembering on both sides
that civility is not a sign of weakness,
and sincerity is always subject to proof.
Let us never negotiate
out of fear.
But let us never fear to negotiate.
[Applause]

Let both sides, for the first time,
formulate serious and precise proposals
for the inspection and control of arms—
and bring the absolute power
to destroy other nations
under the absolute control of all nations.
[Applause]

All this will not be finished
in the first one hundred days.
Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days,
nor in the life of this Administration,
nor even perhaps in our lifetime
on this planet.
But let us begin.
[Applause]

Can we forge against these enemies
a grand and global alliance,
North and South,
East and West,
that can assure a more fruitful life
for all mankind?
Will you join in that historic effort?
[Yeah+Applause]

In the long history of the world,
only a few generations
have been granted the role
of defending freedom
in its hour of maximum danger.
I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it.
[Applause]

And so, my fellow Americans:
ask not
what your country can do for you
- ask what you can do for your country.
[Applause]

My fellow citizens of the world:
ask not
what America will do for you,
but what together we can do
for the freedom of man.
[Applause]

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