reagan challenger speech writer

We mourn their loss as a nation together.

For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.

We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.

I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program. And what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute.

We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.

I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA, or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."

There's a coincidence today. On this day three hundred and ninety years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." 1

1 P hrases in quotation marks found in the poem High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr .

Also in this database : George W. Bush: "Columbia" Disaster Address

See Also : Off-site audio clip explaining cause of Shuttle Challenger disaster

Audio and Images #1 and #3 (Screenshots) Source : The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library

Images of Challenger Crew Source : wikimedia.org

U.S. Copyright Status : Text, Audio, Image #1 and #3 of Reagan = Property of A merican R hetoric.com. Additional Images = Public domain.

clock This article was published more than  8 years ago

Exactly the right words, exactly the right way: Reagan’s amazing Challenger disaster speech

Images from Jan. 28, 1986, are seared into the memories of former schoolchildren, teachers, parents and pretty much any American now older than 30 — the Challenger space shuttle, meant to carry schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into orbit, reduced to a snaky tunnel of smoke in the sky near Cape Canaveral. In the years that followed, a lot would come out about a disaster watched in countless classrooms across the nation: about faulty O-rings , about dangerously cold temperatures, and about how five crewmen, an engineer and a New Hampshire teacher meant to represent NASA in its finest hour became the space agency’s first in-flight fatalities.

A famous physicist’s simple experiment showed the inevitability of the Challenger disaster

But even before the smoke cleared 30 years ago today, one man just as shocked as everyone else by the tragedy — President Ronald Reagan — had the unenviable job of explaining it to the country. On a day, no less, that he was to be the center of a ritual marked on every commander in chief’s calendar since the Woodrow Wilson administration: the State of the Union address.

“We all then headed for a TV & saw the explosion re-played,” Reagan, who heard news of the explosion while prepping for a pre-SOTU luncheon with TV anchors, wrote in his diary . “From then on there was only [one] subject — the death of the 6 crew & 1 passenger — Mrs. McAuliffe, the teacher who had won the right to make the flight. There is no way to describe our shock & horror.”

Thirty years ago, a TV critic watched the Challenger explosion. This is what he saw.

There was no question: The State of the Union, for the first time in modern history, would be scuttled. But what was there to say in the face of such shock and horror? Asked how children would react, Reagan knew he had to “make it plain to them that life does go on and you don’t back up and quit some worthwhile endeavor because of tragedy,” he said . But can such terrible things be made plain — even by a president lauded for his public speaking?

Reagan’s team decided to call in a relatively unknown speechwriter best known for coming in late to the office  after reading the day’s papers: Peggy Noonan. Chief of Staff Donald Regan, when an emotional speech was in order, sometimes said, “Get that girl . . . you know, have that girl do that,”as the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Though “that girl” would go on to pen some of the most famous phrases uttered by presidents in the 1980s — among them, President George H.W. Bush’s “ thousand points of light ” — and to a career as a renowned Wall Street Journal columnist, Noonan was then just “a little schmagoogie in an office in the Old Executive Office Building,” as she put it last year . And this speech was quite the burden to bear.

Read The Post’s coverage of the Challenger disaster in 1986

“I kind of figured the entire nation had seen an auto accident, you know?” Noonan later said . As she said  last year : “The president is going to have to do a speech that is aimed at those who are 8-years-old, and those who are 18, and those who are 80 without patronizing anybody.”

What Noonan came up with on the fly became the stuff of legend. In the oeuvre of a telegenic former showman known for his way with crowds, the Challenger speech is rivaled only by Reagan’s prescient “Tear down this wall!” address, delivered in Berlin just two years before the Berlin Wall came down.

At 5 p.m., addressing the nation less than six hours after the explosion, Reagan started out simply.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans,” he  said . “Today is a day for mourning and remembering.”

It was necessary to remember the dead — and Reagan did, calling out the names of Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis and McAuliffe. But then he moved on to a bigger theme.

“We’ve grown used to wonders in this century,” he said . “It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years, the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.”

But this was no “malaise” speech about the limits of American might — that line had gone out with President Carter in 1980. The Challenger was a tragedy, but it was a tragedy that only further demonstrated how important it was to keep exploring the unknown. And no one should be discouraged, least of all children.

“I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff,” Reagan said . “I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.”

What happened to McAuliffe’s students? A number went on to teach.

This was lofty rhetoric — but the speech had to pack a geopolitical punch, too. There was a Cold War on. Would the Russians say that the U.S. space program was now failing? Would they accuse NASA of covering up some fatal flaw in the shuttle’s design, or some ulterior motive in launching McAuliffe into space in the first place?

Reagan got around to that, too.

“We don’t hide our space program,” he said . “We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute.”

Then came Reagan’s — that is, Noonan’s — kicker: a poem.

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives,” Reagan said. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”

The floral language — “surly bonds,” “face of God” — was from “High Flight,” a work by  John Gillespie Magee , an American airman who died at 19 in an in-flight collision while serving in World War II. It reads, in part:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of … 

“It just came to me,” Noonan said last year . “I just remembered it from seventh grade.”

Although Reagan’s speech beckoned his listeners heavenward, he was, at first, let down by it. Noonan couldn’t know it, but the president was familiar with “High Flight” — it was once emblazoned on a plaque outside his daughter Patti’s grade school. But did a doomed teenager’s 40-year-old musings really rise to the occasion?

“Reagan did not feel that the speech had met the moment,” Noonan said . “There’s nothing you can say that could meet a moment that was that painful to the American people.”

‘We’ve lost ’em, God bless ’em’: What’s it’s like to witness the Challenger disaster

In this, the Great Communicator was proved wrong. Accolades for the speech soon poured in. House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D) was known for working with Reagan rather than against him, but even his compliments were over the top.

“In O’Neill’s opinion, Ronald Reagan, with a prepared text, was simply the best public speaker he’d ever known, and that included FDR and Jack Kennedy,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, O’Neill’s chief of staff during much of the Reagan administration, later wrote . “It was a seasoned man’s assessment. In the case of the Challenger speech, he’d found himself personally moved and personally grateful, and, for Tip O’Neill, that meant a lot.”

Noonan said the quick turnaround time for the speech proved a blessing. There was no time for meddling — for fussy negotiation over particular turns of phrase by staffers eager to put their stamp on history. There was only a great speech, a great speaker and a TV camera.

“There was no time to ruin it,” Noonan said. “… The staffing process can kill a speech.”

Then came the greatest stamp of approval: Reagan’s address also got an A-plus from the president’s pal, Frank Sinatra. And when the Chairman of the Board said something worked, you knew it worked.

“Frank Sinatra called me, and Frank Sinatra didn’t call me after every speech, let me tell ya,” Noonan said Reagan told her . She added: “Reagan came up in show business, and he knew when something landed.”

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January 28, 2020

On This Day: Reagan's Challenger disaster speech

 The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'" – Reagan's Challenger Disaster speech

He was supposed to give the State of the Union address. But President Ronald Reagan postponed it, for the first time in modern history. Because on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart during launch, killing the seven people on board, as the world watched on television.

Reagan delivered a message five hours later to address the disaster, a speech even his toughest critics have praised for both its words and delivery.

The message was written by Peggy Noonan , who at the time was a little known White House speechwriter. Or as she has described her status then: " a little schmagoogie in an office in the Old Executive Office Building."

The little schmagoogie wrote a speech that has lessons for us today:

• Simple language is powerful --Noonan uses plain words and short sentences. The simple language keeps the attention on the subject of the speech, rather than drawing attention to the speaker.
• Consider what the audience needs and what you need for them to take away --The speech needed to send messages to many audiences, ranging from school children to those in the Soviet Union who might find fault with the U.S. space mission. As Noonan herself said, " The president is going to have to do a speech that is aimed at those who are 8-years-old, and those who are 18, and those who are 80 without patronizing anybody."
• There's a benefit to not over-thinking. Noonan said she thought one advantage of writing so quickly was that the speech didn't go through the usual rounds of staff revisions. She also says that the closing lines came to her in the rush of writing; it was a poem she recalled from seventh grade.

Reagan, often called " the great communicator ," was not so sure about those closing lines it turns out. He, too, was familiar with the poem--" High Flight "--and was skeptical that verse from a 19-year-old World War II airman would strike the right tone.

"Reagan did not feel that the speech had met the moment," Noonan has  said . "There's nothing you can say that could meet a moment that was that painful to the American people."

Thirty-four years later, it seems apparent that Reagan was wrong about that.

Learn more:

Here's an article from The Washington Post with more on the story behind the speech.

Go here to read a full transcript.

Below, watch video of Reagan delivering the speech on January 28, 1986.

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Presidential Speeches

January 28, 1986: address on the space shuttle "challenger", about this speech.

Ronald Reagan

January 28, 1986

President Reagan gives this address to the nation from the Oval Office on an evening scheduled for the State of the Union address. The space shuttle Challenger was supposed to be the first mission to put a civilian into space. He reminds his audience of the bravery and dedication of those who were killed on the shuttle.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger . We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss. Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight; we've never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together. For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us. We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers. And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them. I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute. We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it." There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete. The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

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Speech on the Challenger Disaster

• Political Culture
• January 28, 1986

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.

Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But, we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight; we’ve never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we’ve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle; but they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.

For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we’re thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, “give me a challenge and I’ll meet it with joy.” They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.

We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the member of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.

I’ve always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don’t hide our space program. We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute. We’ll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: “Your dedication and professionalism have moved an impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it.”

There’s a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.” Well, today we can say of the challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake’s, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

Three days later, President Reagan delivered the following remarks at a memorial service held in Houston following the Challenger disaster, Jan. 31, 1986.

We come together today to mourn the loss of seven brave Americans, to share the grief we all feel and, perhaps in that sharing, to find the strength to bear our sorrow and the courage to look for the seeds of hope.

Our nation’s loss is first a profound personal loss to the family and the friends and loved ones of our shuttle astronauts. To those they have left behind – the mothers, the fathers, the husbands and wives, brothers, sisters, and yes, especially the children – all of America stands beside you in your time of sorrow.

What we say today is only an inadequate expression of what we carry in our hearts. Words pale in the shadow of grief; they seem insufficient even to measure the brave sacrifice of those you loved and we so admired. Their truest testimony will not be in the words we speak, but in the way they led their lives and in the way they lost those lives – with dedication, honor and an unquenchable desire to explore this mysterious and beautiful universe.

The best we can do is remember our seven astronauts – our ChallengerSeven – remember them as they lived, bringing life and love and joy to those who knew them and pride to a nation.

They came from all parts of this great country – from South Carolina to Washington State; Ohio to Mohawk, New York; Hawaii to North Carolina to Concord, New Hampshire. They were so different, yet in their mission, their quest, they held so much in common.

We remember Dick Scobee, the commander who spoke the last words we heard from the space shuttle Challenger. He served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, earning many medals for bravery, and later as a test pilot of advanced aircraft before joining the space program. Danger was a familiar companion to Commander Scobee.

We remember Michael Smith, who earned enough medals as a combat pilot to cover his chest, including the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals – and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star, in gratitude from a nation that he fought to keep free.

We remember Judith Resnik, known as J.R. to her friends, always smiling, always eager to make a contribution, finding beauty in the music she played on her piano in her off-hours.

We remember Ellison Onizuka, who, as a child running barefoot through the coffee fields and macadamia groves of Hawaii, dreamed of someday traveling to the Moon. Being an Eagle Scout, he said, had helped him soar to the impressive achievement of his career.

We remember Ronald McNair, who said that he learned perseverance in the cotton fields of South Carolina. His dream was to live aboard the space station, performing experiments and playing his saxophone in the weightlessness of space; Ron, we will miss your saxophone and we will build your space station.

We remember Gregory Jarvis. On that ill-fated flight he was carrying with him a flag of his university in Buffalo, New York – a small token he said, to the people who unlocked his future.

We remember Christa McAuliffe, who captured the imagination of the entire nation, inspiring us with her pluck, her restless spiritof discovery; a teacher, not just to her students, but to an entire people, instilling us all with the excitement of this journey we ride into the future.

We will always remember them, these skilled professionals, scientists and adventurers, these artists and teachers and family men and women, and we will cherish each of their stories – stories of triumph and bravery, stories of true American heroes.

On the day of the disaster, our nation held a vigil by our television sets. In one cruel moment, our exhilaration turned to horror; we waited and watched and tried to make sense of what we had seen. That night, I listened to a call-in program on the radio: people of every age spoke of their sadness and the pride they felt in `our astronauts.’ Across America, we are reaching out, holding hands, finding comfort in one another.

The sacrifice of your loved ones has stirred the soul of our nation and, through the pain, our hearts have been opened to a profound truth – the future is not free, the story of all human progress is one of a struggle against all odds. We learned again that this America, which Abraham Lincoln called the last best hope of man on Earth, was built on heroism and noble sacrifice. It was built by men and women like our seven star voyagers, who answered a call beyond duty, who gave more than was expected or required, and who gave it with little thought to worldly reward.

We think back to the pioneers of an earlier century, and the sturdy souls who took their families and the belongings and set out into the frontier of the American West. Often, they met with terrible hardship. Along the Oregon Trail you can still see the grave markers of those who fell on the way. But grief only steeled them to the journey ahead.

Today, the frontier is space and the boundaries of human knowledge. Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain. Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on immense reservoirs of courage, character and fortitude – that we are still blessed with heroes like those of the space shuttle Challenger.

Dick Scobee knew that every launching of a space shuttle is a technological miracle. And he said, if something ever does go wrong, I hope that doesn’t mean the end to the space shuttle program. Every family member I talked to asked specifically that we continue the program, that that is what their departed loved one would want above all else. We will not disappoint them.

Today, we promise Dick Scobee and his crew that their dream lives on; that the future they worked so hard to build will become reality. The dedicated men and women of NASA have lost seven members of their family. Still, they too, must forge ahead, with a space program that is effective, safe and efficient, but bold and committed.

Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and ever greater achievements – that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes.

Dick, Mike, Judy, El, Ron, Greg and Christa – your families and your country mourn your passing. We bid you goodbye. We will never forget you. For those who knew you well and loved you, the pain will be deep and enduring. A nation, too, will long feel the loss of her seven sons and daughters, her seven good friends. We can find consolation only in faith, for we know in our hearts that you who flew so high and so proud now make your home beyond the stars, safe in God’s promise of eternal life.

May God bless you all and give you comfort in this difficult time.

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Peggy Noonan on Ronald Reagan's Space Shuttle Challenger Speech

Peggy Noonan talks about her experience writing the speech President Ronald Reagan delivered following the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger exp… read more

Peggy Noonan talks about her experience writing the speech President Ronald Reagan delivered following the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. This is part of a discussion on her book, The Time of Our Lives: Collected Writings , in which she presents a collection of essays from her fifteen-year tenure at the Wall Street Journal . close

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — Ronald Reagan — Rhetorical Analysis Of Ronald Reagan’s Challenger Speech

Ronald Reagan’s Challenger Speech: Rhetorical Analysis

• Categories: Rhetoric Ronald Reagan

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Words: 1551 |

Published: Feb 9, 2022

Words: 1551 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

The essay analyzes Ronald Reagan's Challenger speech, which he delivered in response to the 1986 Challenger disaster, one of the most tragic events in American history. The disaster involved the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher set to be the first civilian in space. President Reagan's speech is examined as a powerful example of rhetorical strategy, using language to console and inspire the American people.

The essay underscores the context of the speech, highlighting how the Challenger disaster was broadcast across the nation, creating a crisis that demanded the president's immediate attention. Instead of delivering the scheduled State of the Union address, Reagan addressed the tragedy, seeking to help the nation recover from the loss, eulogize the astronauts, and instill hope in the American people.

The essay breaks down Reagan's speech by analyzing his delivery, the impactful diction he employs, and his appeals to pathos. It notes that Reagan's solemn tone and emotionally charged delivery effectively convey his grief and empathy. His powerful diction and quotes resonate with the audience, evoking strong emotions. Moreover, Reagan's appeals to pathos aim to unify the nation and assure them that, despite the setback, the space program would persist.

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