Primary Source Document Analysis: Analyze the excerpts of the...

Primary Source Document Analysis: Analyze the excerpts of the speech provided below.

Primary Source Document - Historical Context: In 1962, NASA opened the Houston Space Center to develop further space technology and train astronauts. As the Space Race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union heated up, it became clear that the nation to develop technology to first land on the moon would be the most advanced. President Kennedy attended the opening ceremonies of the Houston Space Center and then gave a now famous speech at Rice University sometimes referred to as "We choose to go to the Moon", a famous line from the speech.

Excerpt 1 - Leadership in Space Technology

. . . The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to flounder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it—we mean to lead it.

1)Contextualization: In this excerpt, President Kennedy says: "...no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space." Considering that the U.S. was engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union at this time, why might President Kennedy have chosen to include this line about leadership in his speech?

2)Close Reading and Analysis: According to this excerpt, what is one argument President Kennedy is making to explain why America is investing in space technology?

Excerpt 2 - Science for the good of all mankind

We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as

well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

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...

1)Analysis: How does President Kennedy channel some of the fears in American society associated with the Cold War to build his argument in favor of investment in the Space Race?

Excerpt 3 - Why go to the Moon

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 which we intend to win, and the others too...

1)Close Reading: How would you describe President Kennedy's tone and word choice in this excerpt?

2)Analysis: How does President Kennedy use tone and word choice to build his argument in favor of investing in the Space Race?

Excerpt 4 - America vs. Soviet Union

In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48-story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were "made in the United States of America" and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.

The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the 40-yard lines.

Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead.

The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

1)Close Reading: How would you describe President Kennedy's tone and word choice in this excerpt?

2)Analysis: How does President Kennedy use tone and word choice to build his argument in favor of the Space Race in this excerpt?

3)Contextualization and Analysis: How does President Kennedy use the context of the Cold War to build his argument in favor of the Space Race in this excerpt?