Communication Case

Imagine a massive room, crowded with men in sharp suits and hundreds of medals and awards pinned to their chests. They are listening attentively. On the stage, there is an 82 years old gentle man, speaking in high spirit.This is the scene of the reception for the Sylvanus Thayer Award, May 12, 1962, West Point Military Academy. The old man on the stage is General Douglas MacArthur.

General Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 26, 1880. He service to his country spanned the years from 1903, when he was graduated from West Point to the end of his life. American Experience claims that there's no question about his patriotism, there's no question about his courage, and there's no question, about his importance as one of the protagonists of the 20th century. So today, I am going to analyze one of his famous speeches -duty, honor, country, Sylvanus Thayer Award address. I will analyze the motive of this speech, its audience, its support material, and the delivery methods of the speech.

According to the website of memories of the Vietnam War, this speech was given from memory for 34 minutes in front of more than 2,100 cadets. It is quiet long, but all of the sentences and words are effective and meaningful. MacArthur delivers this speech in very slow and has many pause. And his voice is powerful and calm, which can pierce into audience deep heart.

So, firstly, I want to discuss the motive of this speech. The first motive is that MacArthur wants to identify the moral code of solider, which is duty, honor, and country. He wants cadets to keep those three hallowed words in their hearts forever. The second motive of the speech is to encourage soldiers. According to History.com, 1960s is the beginning time of anti-war movement of Vietnam War. Soldiers were considered as killing machines and no one welcame them. In this speech, MacArthur encourages the soldiers and expresses his pride of them. He says American man at arms is one of the world's noblest figures. He also says: "This does not mean that you are war mongers. On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace." I think those sentences are very inspiring.

Secondly, MacArthur's audience is unique. They were soldiers and former soldiers who had tasted the terrors of battle as he did; they were recruits who had experienced the blood, sweat and tears that would make them soldiers as he had experienced. MacArthur knows his audience well and his audiences also know him. There are strong connections between them. So the speech makes sense to his audience.

Then, let's look at the materials MacArthur used to support his speech. He uses his personal experiences to show the hardships, suffering ,and pain of being a solider. Because his audiences are soldiers, so it's easy for them to be involved. An example is "I listened to those songs, in memory's