Award Date

2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Communication Studies

Department

Communication

Advisor 1

David Henry, Committee Chair

First Committee Member

Thomas R. Burkholder

Second Committee Member

Donovan Conley

Graduate Faculty Representative

Stephen Bates

Number of Pages

173

Abstract

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered a televised speech announcing the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This speech has been a subject of scholarship in the field of communication, yet no critic has performed a comprehensive analysis of its multiple drafts and their relationship to the final version. By using a comparative analysis, one can examine the process of presidential decision-making, the translation of those decisions into prose, and the strategic language used to communicate a particular message. This project follows the evolution of Kennedy's address, tracing the changes from one draft to the next, in an attempt to understand the ways in which the administration used the art of oratory to convey a political decision of significant consequence.

Keywords

Cuban Missile Crisis; John F. Kennedy; Presidential address; Speechwriting; Sorensen; Theodore C.

Disciplines

Communication | Rhetoric | Speech and Rhetorical Studies

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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