Duration 18 minutes Theme The US Space effort | Venue Rice Stadium | |
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Date September 12, 1962; 54 years ago (1962-09-12) Location Rice University, Houston, Texas | ||
The "Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort", or better known simply as the "We choose to go to the moon" speech, was delivered by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in front of a large crowd gathered at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962. It was one of Kennedy's earlier speeches meant to persuade the American people to support the national effort to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth.
Contents
Background
When John F. Kennedy became president in January 1961, Americans had the perception that the United States was losing the Space Race with the Soviet Union, which had successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, almost four years earlier. The perception deepened when in April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space before the U.S. could launch its first Project Mercury astronaut. Convinced of the political need to make an achievement which would decisively demonstrate America's space superiority, and after consulting with NASA through his Vice President Lyndon Johnson to identify such an achievement, Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
Kennedy's goal gave direction and a specific mission to National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Apollo program. This required the expansion of NASA's Space Task Group into a Manned Spacecraft Center. Houston, Texas was chosen as the site, and the Humble Oil and Refining Company donated the land in 1961, through Rice University as an intermediary. Kennedy took advantage of the 1962 construction of the facility to deliver a speech on the nation's space effort.
The speech
On September 12, 1962, President Kennedy delivered his speech before a crowd of 35,000 people in the Rice football stadium. The most memorable and quoted portion of the speech comes in the middle:
We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the Moon! ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win ...
Rhetoric
Kennedy's speech used three strategies: "a characterization of space as a beckoning frontier; an articulation of time that locates the endeavor within a historical moment of urgency and plausibility; and a final, cumulative strategy that invites audience members to live up to their pioneering heritage by going to the moon."
When addressing the world at Rice University, he stated the American desire to do what had never been done before by exploring space, and being the first to do it in the pioneering spirit that had dominated American folklore since the nation’s foundation. This allowed Kennedy to reference back to his inaugural speech, when he declared to the world “Together let us explore the stars,” enabling his metaphor to come full circle.
Kennedy verbally condenses human history to fifty years, in which “only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.” With this extended metaphor of massive proportions, Kennedy seeks to imbue a sense of urgency and change in his audience. He recognized the exponential growth of technology, and played on that to show that within the short time of nine years the stars would be ready for exploration.
Most prominently, the phrase “We choose to go to the moon” in the Rice speech is repeated three times consecutively, followed by an explanation that climaxes in his declaration that the challenge of space is “one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” Considering the line before rhetorically asked the audience why they choose to compete in tasks that challenge them, Kennedy highlighted here the nature of the decision to go to space as being a choice, an option that the American people have elected to pursue. Rather than claim it as essential, he focused on the benefits such an endeavor can provide – focusing the energy of the nation – and the competitive aspect of it. Let the people be driven to great deeds not by threats to their safety, but the promise of future in which they have conquered that which opposes them. As Kennedy told Congress earlier, “whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.” These were words that emphasized the freedoms enjoyed by Americans to choose their destiny rather than have it chosen for them, and combined with Kennedy’s overall usage of rhetorical devices in the Rice University speech, these famous words are particularly apt as a declaration that began the American space race.
Altogether, Kennedy was able to construct a romantic notion of space in the Rice University speech that all citizens of the United States, and even the world could participate in, vastly increasing the number of citizens interested in space exploration. He began by talking about Space as the new frontier for all of mankind, instilling the dream within the audience. He then condensed human history to show that within a very short period of time space travel will be possible, informing the audience that their dream is achievable. Lastly, he then ties the audience to the dream and its method itself, using the first-personal plural “we” to represent all the people of the world that would explore space together, but also to disseminate responsibility among the crowd. This constant use of first-person plural connects the listeners, and makes them aware that they, the people, are on the frontlines of space exploration.
Aftermath
Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, wrote in looking back on the speech on its 50th anniversary that:
Kennedy's oration was front-page news around the country. Pundits saw it as another Ted Sorenson-penned speech drenched in terrestrial aspiration. But for all of its soaring rhetoric, the Rice address was grounded in pragmatism. Kennedy made the case to taxpayers that NASA needed a $5.4 billion budget. Kennedy also did a tremendous job of connecting the moonshot to Houston in ways that thrilled locals. "We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted for strength," he said. "And we stand in need of all three." What Kennedy did so brilliantly that day was frame the moonshot as being instrumental for U.S. security reasons.