PRESIDENTIAL ORATORY: THE IMPORTANCE 
OF WORDS IN POLITICS  

When reviewing the speech prepared for delivery to Congress after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 -- "a date that will live in history" -- Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) spotted the cliche and changed history to "infamy." Like the greatest presidents, FDR knew that one word, not just one speech, can make a difference.

The most revered U.S. presidents are remembered for far more than their speeches. But all the presidents considered great by historians have been accomplished communicators. Often, their words linger in the people's imagination far longer than their specific achievements, testimony to their sense of history as well as their capacity for language.

Perhaps the greatest communicator who ever occupied the office of president -- certainly the most eloquent -- was Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president (1861-1865), who led the country during the Civil War. His Gettysburg Address (1863), considered by many to be the finest political speech in the English language -- and only 271 words long -- ends with these timeless words: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, and that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

No less eloquent, however, was Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, on March 4, 1864. Again Lincoln saved his most memorable words for his closing sentence: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

Lincoln was president during the greatest threat to the Republic's survival. A later Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), led the nation at a more tranquil time when the United States was emerging onto the world stage. His famous dictum, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," entered the general, and not just the political, lexicon -- one of a number of blunt admonitions from the former leader of the "Rough Riders" (the name of the cavalry unit he led during the Spanish-American War).

But Theodore Roosevelt also was capable of eloquence as well as bluntness. "The credit belongs to the man," he said, "who is in the arena, whose face is marred by sweat and dust and blood -- who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause -- who, at best, if he wins, knows the thrill of high achievement -- and if he fails, at least fails, while daring greatly."

In the second half of the 20th century, the eloquence of two presidents with very different ideological views is most remembered -- Democrat John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) and Republican Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). Both had a keen awareness of the power of language in connecting with voters and took great care with both the preparation and delivery of their speeches. Their words resonate long after particular programs and policies are forgotten.

"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." John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, given on a cold, snowy day in January 1961, is perhaps the best remembered of all inaugural speeches. Thus began the world's love affair with the presidency of John Kennedy that lasted just two years and 10 months.

Twenty years after the election of the nation's youngest elected president, another leader strode confidently onto the American and world stage -- Republican President Ronald Reagan who boldly declared that America should never be a land of "small dreams." In his second inaugural address, given in January 1985, Reagan spoke of the right to democracy. "Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies has grown fourfold," he noted. "Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere more so than in our own hemisphere. Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit."

But perhaps Reagan's best-remembered words were those he spoke on January 28, 1986, following the "Challenger" space shuttle tragedy. The whole speech is unforgettable -- its last sentence particularly -- devoted to the memory of those who died aboard the ill-fated flight. "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.'"

Not all U.S. presidents, who are remembered for their gift with words, were noted for their eloquence. Some were admired for their use of direct, no-nonsense language -- none more so than Democratic President Harry Truman (1945-1953). Two of his most famous contributions are used in everyday language today -- "the buck stops here"(a slogan he kept on his desk), and "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Harry Truman came to the presidency after the sudden death of Franklin Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. FDR had been president of the United States longer than anyone else -- 12 years -- during the two greatest threats to the nation's survival since the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II. For the manner in which Roosevelt dealt with those challenges, many historians consider him to be the greatest U.S. president, certainly of the last century.

But Roosevelt's capacity with language, as well as his achievements, was surely part of his enormous success with the American people. He had a way of encapsulating large issues in simple sentences, of communicating to the common man in an uncommon way -- and not only to Americans. As the writer Isaiah Berlin said, he became a hero to "the indigent and oppressed far beyond the confines of the English-speaking world."

On one occasion -- in 1937 -- FDR spoke of his hopes for the future: "You ought to thank God tonight if, regardless of your years, you are young enough in spirit to dream dreams and see visions -- dreams and visions about a greater and finer America that is to be; if you are young enough in spirit to believe that poverty can be greatly lessened; that the disgrace of involuntary unemployment can be wiped out; that class hatreds can be done away with; that peace at home and peace abroad can be maintained; and that one day a generation will possess this land, blessed beyond anything we know now, blessed with those things -- material and spiritual -- that make man's life abundant. If that is the fashion of your dreaming, then I say, hold fast to your dream. America needs it."