The unheard speech that JFK was due to give on the day he was assassinated was put together for this project which was a collaboration between Irish editorial, digital and creative forces. The Times and Rothco built the speech using cutting-edge voice recognition software used by motor neurone disease sufferers allowing it to be given in JFK's own words for the first time ever.
The unique historical project celebrated the revered Irish-American president and reminded people of his continued relevance, 55 years after his death, espeically given the style of the current US president. The Times editorial and digital design strength put the speech in context and showed how the content of his speech was timely as it warned of how “ignorance and misinformation can handicap” progress. It was presented with audio, videos and analysis. The story was placed on the front page of the Irish and London edition and was picked up worldwide and sparked debate in opinion pages and on radio about how this technology could be used in future. JFK: Unsilenced won seven awards incliding the grand prix for creative data at the Cannes Lions awards, the first time an Irish project has won the main award.
In total the project recorded 52.1 million twitter impressions, reached 26 million people on social media, reached 1 billion in editorial and was covered by media outlets in 59 countries worldwide. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jfk-unsilenced-hear-kennedys-lost-dallas- speech-99c96gdqf Speech highlights https://youtu.be/Yp1ArWEBGBk
Making of https://youtu.be/9wkk70Ig9G4
Full speech https://youtu.be/9lDpLEIgeW0
Jerrie Marcus Smith https://youtu.be/mWDDQGsg-L8
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Friday March 16 2018 | thetimes.co.uk | No 72484 Only £1 to subscribers £1.60 How to sell your Cheltenham home Tinder-style 20-page FRIDAY MARCH 16 2018 12-page guide to Gold Cup day property pullout Google spends tens of millions on think tanks that back its policies
Mark Bridge Technology Correspondent allow Google lobbyists to rub shoulders The commission fined Google €2.4 bil- Google in some way”. One recent opin- tion quango that was given £250 mil- with ministers and policymakers who lion last summer for abuse of market ion piece claimed that platforms such lion of NationalTake Lottery a reality funds check and later Google has spent tens of millions of might not attend those run under the dominance in shopping search results. as Google created “immense value”. converted intoTHE THINGSa YOUcharity NEED TO KNOW TO SELL A HOMEbecause NOW its pages 10-11 How to embrace the Versace look pounds funding think tanks that have technology company’s branding. Think tanks studied by the Daniel Stevens, of the CfA, said that work was “best donepage 13fromWhat decor seasona areposition you? pages 14-15 of published papers supporting its policy The report, compiled by a US watch- Campaign for Accountability (CfA) Google’s academic network “helps the complete independence”. interests. dog, said that Europe was crucial to included the Research Alliance for a company exert a subtle and insidious Its events have been attended by A report seen by The Times exam- Google because the European Com- Digital Economy (Readie), which is run form of influence on the region’s policy- senior British and European officials. A ined the financial backing of five mission was the only regulator outside by a former government quango. The makers, which often goes unnoticed by Digital Done Better conference institutions in Britain and Europe. The America with sufficient clout to cause CfA found that “virtually every report those who are being influenced”. brought together 100 policymakers academic groups also stage events that the company to change its conduct. Readie publishes appears favourable to Readie is run by Nesta, the innova- 55 years after West unites he was killed, JFK gives his to confront final speech
Aaron Rogan Senior Ireland Reporter Five decades after his assassination shocked the world, John F Kennedy can Russia over now be heard delivering the speech in Dallas that he was never able to make. Engineers have used new technology to recreate the voice of the 35th US president speaking the words he was due to say on November 22, 1963, when poisonings he was shot dead. Kennedy was killed, aged 46, as his motorcade travelled through the city on his way to a lunch at the Dallas Chemical attack in Salisbury ‘threatens us all’ Trade Mart. The text of the speech he was due to give there was preserved and Sam Coates, Rhys Blakely that “mafia-like groups” were responsi- given to a local businessman by Lyndon Lucy Fisher, Fiona Hamilton ble as he maintained his refusal to B Johnson, Kennedy’s vice-president blame the Russian state. who became president after his death. The West united against President 6 Gavin Williamson, the defence sec- The Times teamed up with CereProc, Putin’s regime yesterday as America retary, told President Putin’s regime to a British audio technology company, announced tougher sanctions against “go away and shut up” as he signalled and Rothco, an Irish creative agency, Moscow and joined France and Ger- that international action would be to build a database that has been used many in an unequivocal condemnation taken against Russia. to deliver the speech in the late presi- of the Salisbury chemical attack. During her visit to Salisbury Mrs dent’s voice. In an unusual joint statement, the May said: “What is important is that They have recreated that voice by an- leaders of France, Germany, the US and allies are standing alongside us and say- alysing recordings from 831 of his Britain said there was “no plausible ing this is part of a pattern of activity speeches and radio addresses. Sound alternative explanation” for the poison- that we have seen from Russia in their engineers took 116,777 sound units from ing other than that it was the work of interference, their disruption that they clips of him speaking to create audio of the Kremlin. The attempted murder of have perpetrated across a number of him performing the speech in his Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter countries in Europe. This happened in unique cadence as part of The Times’s Yulia, 33, represented “an assault on the UK but it could have happened any- JFK: Unsilenced project. The speech UK sovereignty” and a breach of inter- where, and we take a united stance can be heard on The Times’s website. national law that “threatens the secur- against it.” Seen as a rebuke to populist politics ity of us all”, the leaders said. France toughened its response to the growing in the US, the speech talks President Trump said it “certainly attack after President Macron spoke to about his generation being “the watch- looks like the Russians were behind it”, Mrs May yesterday morning. men on the walls of world freedom”. adding: “I’ve spoken with the [British] Later, new US sanctions were pub- Chris Pidcock, the chief voice engi- prime minister and we are in discus- lished targeting Russian hackers, social neer at CereProc, said it was the first sions. A very sad situation.” media “trolls” and spies it accuses of time that the company’s technology Separately, after a meeting of Nato’s interfering in the presidential election. had been used in this way. decision-making council, Britain’s The sanctions were imposed on five national security adviser, Sir Mark Sed- Russian entities and 19 individuals and will, declared that the military alliance are the toughest the Trump adminis- was united in its efforts to defend itself tration has taken against the Kremlin. from Russian threats. It came as: The US Treasury cited the Salisbury Exclusive 6 Theresa May received a boost for her attack in its justification for the meas- handling of the incident, with the Tor- ures. “The recent use of a military- ies opening up a three-point lead over grade nerve agent in an attempt to Listen to Kennedy’s Labour in a new poll. She declared murder two UK citizens further dem- Salisbury “open for business” on a visit onstrates the reckless and irresponsible unheard speech to the scene of the attack and shared a conduct of its government,” it said. On mobile, tablet fistbump with a crowd member. The White House also accused The speech President Kennedy was due to give on the day he was assassinated and at thetimes.co.uk 6 Jeremy Corbyn raised the possibility in November 1963 has been constructed in his own voice using new technology ireland edition
friday march 16 2018 thetimes.ie | no 72484 €1.50 IRELAND AND THE WORLD Why the Stones Inside Cheltenham love Ireland Times2 12-page guide to Gold Cup day Ronnie Wood interview 55 years after he was assassinated, JFK gives his final speech
Aaron Rogan Senior Ireland Reporter when he was shot dead. Kennedy was EXCLUSIVE company, to build a database that has Americans being “the watchmen on the killed, aged 46, as his motorcade trav- been used to deliver the speech in the walls of world freedom”. Five decades after his assassination elled to a lunch at the Dallas Trade The Dallas president’s voice. They have managed It goes on: “We ask, therefore, that we shocked the world, John F Kennedy can Mart. The text of the speech he was speech JFK to recreate his voice by analysing re- may be worthy of our power and re- be heard giving the speech in Dallas scheduled to give there was preserved never made cordings from 831 of his speeches and sponsibility, that we may exercise our that he was never able to make. and given by his successor, Lyndon B radio addresses as part of this news- strength with wisdom and restraint, Engineers have used new technology Johnson, to a local businessman. — in his paper’s JFK: Unsilenced project. and that we may achieve in our time to recreate the voice of the 35th presi- The Times has teamed up with own voice Seen as a rebuke to the populist and and for all time the ancient vision of dent of the US delivering the words he Rothco, an Irish creative agency, and News pages 6-8 closed-minded politics growing in the ‘peace on earth, good will toward men’.” was due to say on November 22, 1963, Cereproc, a British audio technology US at the time, the speech talks about West unites to confront Russia over poisonings
Sam Coates, Rhys Blakely Lucy Fisher, Fiona Hamilton The West united against President Putin’s regime yesterday as America announced tougher sanctions against Moscow and joined France and Ger- many in an unequivocal condemnation of the Salisbury chemical attack. In an unusual joint statement, the leaders of France, Germany, the US and Britain said there was “no plausible alternative explanation” for the poison- ing other than that it was the work of the Kremlin. The attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, represented “an assault on UK sovereignty” and a breach of inter- national law that “threatens the secur- ity of us all”, the leaders said. President Trump said it “certainly looks like the Russians were behind it”, Leo Varadkar on Capitol Hill with Donald Trump and Peter King, a US Representative. He disclosed that he had intervened over the president’s Doonbeg resort adding: “I’ve spoken with the [British] prime minister and we are in discus- sions. A very sad situation.” Separately, after a meeting of Nato’s decision-making council, Britain’s national security adviser, Sir Mark Sed- Varadkar under fire for will, declared that the military alliance was united in its efforts to defend itself from Russian threats. It came as: 6 Theresa May received a boost for her handling of the incident, with the Tor- ies opening up a three-point lead over Labour in a new poll. She declared Trump wind farm call Salisbury “open for business” on a visit to the scene of the attack and shared a fistbump with a crowd member. White House talks overshadowed by admission 6 Jeremy Corbyn raised the possibility that “mafia-like groups” were responsi- Jennifer Bray other before their meeting yesterday. it and I rang the county council and in- was the nature of the intervention?” ble as he maintained his refusal to Deputy Ireland Political Editor Mr Varadkar said: “The president had quired about the planning permission Eamon Ryan, the Green Party leader, blame the Russian state. alluded to the fact that we actually had and subsequently the planning permis- said it “harks back to the very dark days 6 Gavin Williamson, the defence sec- Leo Varadkar is under pressure to ex- been in contact before the president be- sion was declined and the wind farm in the Irish planning system, where pol- retary, told President Putin’s regime to plain why he intervened on behalf of came president and before I became was never built — thus the landscape itical interference ensured that the rich “go away and shut up” as he signalled Donald Trump in an attempt to stop a taoiseach. It happened three or four being preserved — and the president and powerful got what they wanted. that international action would be wind farm being built near the presi- years ago, when I was the minister for has very kindly given me credit for that, The fact that the taoiseach so flippantly taken against Russia. dent’s hotel in Doonbeg. tourism. My assistant John Carroll said although I do think it probably would admitted his intervention today only During her visit to Salisbury Mrs In unscripted remarks at a lunch on there was a call, ‘Donald Trump wants have been refused anyway.” makes matters worse.” May said: “What is important is that Capitol Hill yesterday, Mr Varadkar to speak to you’.” Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and the Brendan Howlin, the Labour Party allies are standing alongside us and say- said that he “endeavoured to do what I Mr Varadkar recounted how Mr Green Party were last night calling for leader, said the comments were “ex- ing this is part of a pattern of activity could do” to halt the plans after a phone Trump told him on the phone about his an explanation from Mr Varadkar. Mi- traordinary”. He added: “The taoiseach that we have seen from Russia in their call from Mr Trump. worries in relation to a wind farm that cheál Martin, the Fianna Fáil leader, needs to make clear immediately the interference, their disruption that they The US president had earlier sug- was due to open near his hotel. “So I en- said: “The taoiseach needs to be more nature of these representations and if have perpetrated across a number of gested that the two had spoken to each deavoured to do what I could do about transparent. Who did he ring? What 6 Friday March 16 2018 | the times NewsNews JFK Kennedy’s speech from day he was assassinated still ‘prescient today’
Aaron Rogan Senior Ireland Reporter could help people with motor neurone disease to preserve their voices and that Jerrie Marcus Smith remembers exact- is how he found Cereproc. It took a se- ly where she was when she found out ries of tests before the project took off as that John F Kennedy had been shot. varying audio quality meant initial at- The 27-year-old was sitting directly tempts were patchy. “When we got the below John Erik Jonsson when he ap- first sentence back there were two proached the podium in the Dallas words that worked. I knew that if we Trade Mart. “Ladies and gentlemen, could do two words we could do the may I have your attention, please?” Mr speech with time and patience,” Mr Jonsson, the president of the Dallas Kelly said. Citizens Council business group, said. Once he realised the project was “There has been a delay in the arrival of possible, Mr Kelly felt he needed the the motorcade. There has been a world to hear the speech and that is mishap. We do not know the extent of it where The Times became involved. or the exact nature.” Ms Marcus Smith said she feels that There was unease in the room as like many Americans, her life was bi- whispers circulated but no indication sected by the assassination. “Before it that anything more than “a mishap” was La La Land. Everything was good: had taken place until minutes later. the war was over, soldiers were home “We were sitting there and he was and business was booming. People in late, people weren’t late in those days, their 20s are still pretty naive but we and there were whispers that some- thought we knew everything so we thing had happened. Then suddenly were all shocked out of our naivety and the press ran out of the room. They our idealism. We fell in love with JFK knocked over waiters and trays and because of his idealism. It was like a glasses. Then Erik Jonsson announced Jerrie Marcus Smith, who was waiting truck door slamming shut on you.” what happened.Everybody gasped and see Kennedy’s speech in 1963, below, Hatred for Kennedy was not hidden then it was quiet.” has finally heard a remastered version in Dallas before his arrival or after the Ms Marcus Smith, whose father, news reached the Trade Mart, filled Stanley Marcus, founded Neiman Mar- every world problem.” Ms Marcus with businessmen and their families, cus, the department store chain, knew Smith feels that this passage could be that the president was dead. “One thing that Kennedy had his detractors in Dal- applied to the United States today, that really sticks out in my mind, thank las, but as an active Democrat she was where Donald Trump is the 45th God I don’t remember who it was, but looking forward to hearing her presi- president. he said ‘My son sure would have liked to dent speak from the podium above the “As I was listening, I kept saying this have taken that shot’,” she said. table her father had bought tickets for. is what we should have done, it applies “It was 12 noon, no alcohol at all, it re- Alas, it wasn’t to be. Until now. to today. And it probably applied in the flects how Dallas felt.” Using modern technology and old 1800s. The way he expressed his goals The morning of the president’s archive recordings of Kennedy, The and the goodness of his speech got to arrival a funereal welcome had been Times teamed up with Rothco, a Du- me. He had an elegance that has gone placed in the Dallas Morning News by blin-based creative agency, and Cere- by the by,” she said. three businessmen. Inside a black ban- proc, a Scottish sound company, to Listening and reading along with her ner on a full page ad, it read: “Welcome break down Kennedy’s voice and re- father’s red leatherbound copy, she said Mr Kennedy to Dallas…” What fol- dropped r’s, the faintest John F build it. The process took a painstaking it brought back a feeling of something lowed were accusations of liberal Boston-Irish twang, all Kennedy was two months, but has finally allowed the lost. “Just looking at his words and smears against conservative politicians identify him as the assassinated in planned Trade Mart speech to be made hearing the way he speaks, it is like a and a bald rejection of Kennedy’s phi- A tone foremost member of November 1963 in the 35th president’s own voice. daydream,” she said. “I was interested in losophy. It also criticised him for being America’s most famous as his Listening to the JFK: Unsilenced the patterns, they picked it up quite well too weak on America’s enemies. that was political clan. The motorcade project last week for the first time actually. The pauses. It was great to “He was not bellicose but he was firm Kennedys pronounced travelled brought tears to Ms Marcus Smith’s hear those words and I like his voice. It in how we were not going to be pushed entirely “Korea” as “career”; through Dallas eyes. Hearing the words she never got reminded me of how long ago it around, but that idea has lost his lus- “manner” came out as en route to his the chance to 55 years ago in Kennedy’s was.” tre,” Ms Marcus Smith said. “I think of its time “mannah”, “years” as speech at a own voice was “mindblowing”, she said. The idea to give Kennedy a his speech could be given right “yeahs”, and “there” as trade centre. His “It gave me the chills,” she added. voice again came from Alan now and it would be as powerful.” “theeh”. You say “potato”, tones were The Unspoken Speech was well Kelly, a creative director at Ms Marcus Smith, who has five ohn F Kennedy’s but Kennedy definitely reminiscent of known to her family. Her father ob- Rothco, who has had a lifelong children of her own, said that the accent is pure said “petatah”. an earlier tained a copy of it from his friend Lyn- fascination with the late president. loss of oration like that of Kennedy’s “Boston Brahmin”, The president’s upper- political age don B Johnson after Kennedy’s assassi- “I was watching a docu- has changed the way people a way of speaking class Massachusetts drawl nation and had it published in leather- mentary about the presi- think about political issues. that immediately was so distinct that it dent’s Dallas trip and I had Jsummons up a specific bound copies. It is a speech that tackled “Our moral fibre: what’s became synonymous with the “dissident voices” in American life, never really thought about happened to that? The crux American time, place and a certain kind of “finding fault but never favour”, and where he was on his way to of the speech is we are fight- class (Ben Macintyre politician. The accent is who refused to acknowledge progress. when he was shot. I hadn’t ing for how to act as people. writes). even parodied in The When the recreated audio played, heard about the speech Young people today don’t His cadences, complex Simpsons, as spoken by Ms Marcus Smith was waiting to hear and I didn’t know it exist- have the ability to sit and sentence construction and Mayor Quimby, “who one passage in particular. ed. It had obviously been listen to a 20-minute alliteration are all speaks with a Boston “In a world of complex and continu- written in advance, but I speech. They get sound- reminiscent of an earlier accent, throws money at ing problems, in a world full of frustra- don’t think it had regis- bites that they just hear political age and a style of political problems, and tions and irritations, America’s leader- tered with many people. over and over again. The public speaking that vacations in a coastal ship must be guided by the lights of I looked it up online and same ideas that can be stands in sharp contrast resort called the Quimby learning and reason — or else those was blown away by how expressed in a 20- to his presidential Compound”. who confuse rhetoric with reality and prescient it is to today,” minute speech successors. To American ears over the plausible with the possible will gain he said. can’t be expressed JFK’s distinctive trans- the age of 70, JFK’s voice the popular ascendancy with their Mr Kelly knew of in a tweet,” she said. Atlantic tones, his spoke of Democratic seemingly swift and simple solutions to technology that the times | Friday March 16 2018 7 NewsNews How JFK’s voice was brought back to life, one sound at a time
Aaron Rogan, nise the environment and manipulate the audio so that it ran together was It took eight weeks to bring to life the quite difficult.” Mr Pidcock estimated 2,590-word speech that John F Kenne- that of the final 20-minute speech, less dy was never able to deliver. than half of the audio units were origi- Sound engineers pulled 116,777 nally beside each other when pulled sound units from 831 of JFK’s speeches from recordings. “Getting to that point and radio addresses. These units were is pretty challenging based on the vari- then split in half and analysed for pitch able nature of the audio quality, as well and energy. The half units, known as as the speech itself having different phones, were each about 0.4 seconds qualities and different noise levels. long and had to be tested next to each “One of the things we needed to do is other to ensure that they did not clash. get a very accurate transcription of the The W sound in weapons, for example, audio so that the Umms and Ahhs is not the same as the W sound in words. could be labelled and we could make Chris Pidcock, co-founder and chief sure the phonetic pieces were correct. If voice engineer at Cereproc in Edin- you label them incorrectly you might burgh, said: “There are only 40/45 pick the wrong piece and the whole phones in English so once you’ve got sentence will sound wrong,” he said. that set you can generate any word in The project involved a two-month the language. The problem is that it process to pick the best quality record- would not sound natural because one ings of Kennedy and cross-reference sound merges into the sound next to it them with the written speech so cross- so they’re not really independent. You talk, static or other non-speech noise really need the sounds in the context of were not selected. Once a database of every other sound and that makes the the cleanest sound units was built, a database big,” computer system never used before was Cereproc specialises in text-to-voice employed to recognise and recreate technology. It is used by brands to bring Kennedy’s oratorical style. This re- characters and products to life but also quired feeding data from his speeches to allow people who are losing the into the computer until it learned the power of speech from motor neurone patterns in his delivery. Then, when disease or other conditions to maintain The Unspoken Speech was put in, the their own voice, something which is system could tweak it and make it also part of their character. sound more natural. He recreated Roger Ebert’s voice, “We used that to improve the way when the late US film critic lost his that we could generate the speech speech after surgery to treat thyroid output for Kennedy. That was a new cancer. That project involved trawling thing that we had been testing through hundreds of hours of film com- internally but we hadn’t used in a real mentaries from his DVDs. Ebert was project before,” Mr Pidcock said. “To able to use the voice during an appear- predict his intonation, we analysed the ance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. way he speaks by pitch and duration of Recreating Kennedy’s voice and sounds and the energy he puts into unique cadence for the JKF: Unsilenced various sounds, depending on where project proved a more difficult chal- they are in a sentence. lenge, he said. “Because of the old “We put lots of that data through a analogue recording devices used, it ap- model which learned to predict where peared as if it was a different person his pitch would go in a way that made it Exclusive speaking each time. Trying to harmo- more like how JFK would speak.” Listen to the Dallas speech that Kennedy never made Keeping command of life On mobile, tablet and at thetimes.ie by recording your phrases power, and identifiable Arkansas accent, quite election in today’s Moon-shot speech is high regional roots. As The often to the point of America. Donald Trump’s school graduate level. Aaron Rogan personality is illustrated by Stephen New York Times observed, incomprehensibility. The almost accent-free way of Kennedy spoke formal Hawking’s refusal of offers by Cereproc the Kennedyesque contrast between Hillary speaking stands at the English. Trump’s speeches Tony Cooke, from Blackrock in Co Du- and others to recreate his own voice. “missing r’s and elongated Clinton’s voice in the opposite pole to that of are filled with the sort of blin, has a reason for making sure he His robotic voice had become part of a’s were evidence of southern states and the JFK. “Trumpspeak” relies intimacy-inviting keeps his voice as it deteriorates due to his public persona and he felt it was part authenticity”. way she spoke in on short words and locutions common to multiple system atrophy, a rare degen- of who he was. He went to great lengths Presidential accents Washington DC was so restricted sentences standard American erative disease; he wants to make sure to keep it even when the hardware syn- have flattened out in the marked that she claimed (often reduced to a single English: “You know what his dog still understands his commands. thesiser he used broke down. years since Kennedy’s to be “multilingual”. word), stripped of . . . ”, “Lemme tell Mr Cooke has tried a few systems but Instead of opting for a more natural assassination. Lyndon According to the critic oratorical or rhetorical you . . . ” He avoids found something lacking. “When Blos- voice, he asked for a new version of his Johnson’s hillbilly Texas Camille Paglia: “In trying flourishes. Almost all his complex messages in som, my border collie, heard a synthe- robotic tone to be made by recording twang grated with the to act more casual and sentences are shorter favour of rousing slogans sised voice it just sat there doing its own his machine voice, created in the 1980s northern elites that folksy to appeal to than 15 syllables and some that sometimes produce thing. When it heard my own voice and using it to recreate the full sound. dominated the working-class white are as short as five. entirely new words: through the system, it responded. Unlike the Kennedy speech, if people Democratic party in the voters, Barack Obama To Trump’s supporters, “We’re not going to lose. “It does make a difference, plus it can record their voice in time, the tech- 1960s. Occasionally resorted to a cringe- his blunt and idiomatic We are going to start gives you something to do to keep a bit nology needs only three to four hours “negro” slipped out as making use of inner-city English is proof of his winning again. And we’re of your personality attached,” he said. of data to run clearly. And the machine “nigrah”, to the horror of black intonations.” directness and honesty; to going to win big league.” The 66-year-old former managing learning used for the Kennedy speech some of his political Kennedy, by contrast, his enemies, it is evidence The voice of JFK back director for a logistics company began will eventually allow people who lose colleagues. Johnson did never “code-shifted” his of his stupidity. The US returned from the dead recording his voice last October on the the power to talk to maintain even his best to take off the accent; nor did he alter navy’s Flesch-Kincaid via the miracle of advice of a friend in a patients’ group. more of their personality by expressing Texas edge. his Harvard-learned tests assess readability, technology offers an “With the disease it’s very rapid, by emotions and tones. Modern presidents method of constructing a using an algorithm to extraordinary insight into the time you think you have time it’s too Mr Cooke is filling his database with often adapt their accents sentence and delivering a assign language a level the contrasting speaking late. It’s only when you go to answer the phrases he will need, such as: “Can you depending on geography speech. equivalent to a school styles of the 35th and 45th phone that you suddenly realise you pick that up for me, I dropped it by acci- and audience, a process To his audiences, grade. Mr Trump’s US presidents. can’t speak. If somebody rings the dent.” He is also practising with eye- described by linguists as Kennedy sounded refined, language measures in the The way the occupants house you have no way of communicat- tracker technology so he can call up “code-shifting”. educated, serious and fourth grade (ages nine- of the White House speak ing to answer it. If you have the voice it phrases quickly after he loses mobility. Whenever he was in the intellectual, an advantage ten); Hillary Clinton is to the American people gives you independence — the whole “People have a terrible tendency to south, Bill Clinton in 1963 that would classified as eighth grade has changed, and changed secret is to try to maintain your inde- think that you’ve become stupid. It’s twanged up his native represent a virtual bar to (ages 13-14) and JFK’s big league. pendence,” Mr Cooke said. frustrating to say the least but I’m The connection between a voice and happy now I’ve recorded my voice.” 8 Friday March 16 2018 | the times NewsNews JFK How the speech would have succeeded - and failed
Philip Collins analyses key sections the importance of such virtues for respected by those whose choice for the preservation and promotion of of JFK’s ”unspoken speech” — the securing America’s place in the affects our future. Only an America freedom. The strength will never be rebuke to populism he would have world. The whole thing is a pretext which has fully educated its citizens is used in pursuit of aggressive ambitions; given on November 22, 1963 which makes his upgrading of “those fully capable of tackling the complex it will always be used in pursuit of who confuse rhetoric with reality” problems and perceiving the hidden peace. It will never be used to promote This nation’s strength and rather pious. It is also impossible not dangers of the world. And only an provocations; it will always be used to security are not easily or cheaply to read this speech in the context of America which is growing and promote the peaceful settlement of obtained, nor are they quickly and why it was never delivered. “There prospering economically can sustain disputes. We, in this country, in this simply explained. There are many are dissident voices in the land”. the defences of freedom, while generation, are — by destiny rather kinds of strength and no one kind will There are, indeed. demonstrating the opportunities of our than by choice — the watchmen on the suffice. This link between leadership system and society. It is clear, therefore, walls of world freedom. We ask, and learning is not only essential at the I have spoken of strength largely in that we are strengthening our security therefore, that we may be worthy of community level; it is even more terms of the deterrence and resistance as well as our economy by our record our power and responsibility, that we indispensable in world affairs. of aggression and attack. But freedom increases in national income and may exercise our strength with wisdom Ignorance and misinformation can can be lost without a shot being fired, output — by surging ahead of most of and restraint, and that we may achieve handicap the progress of a city or a by ballots as well as bullets. Our western Europe in the rate of business the ancient vision of “peace on earth, company, but they can, if allowed to success is dependent upon respect for expansion and the margin of corporate good will toward men.” That must be prevail in foreign policy, handicap this our mission in the world as well as our profits, by maintaining a more stable our goal, and the righteousness of our country’s security. In a world of missiles; on a clearer recognition of the level of prices than our competitors, cause must always underlie our complex and continuing problems, in a virtues of freedom as well as the evils and by cutting income taxes by $11 strength. For as was written long ago: world full of frustrations and of tyranny. That is why our Kennedy attempted to meld homely billion, as I have proposed, to assure “Except the Lord keep the city, the irritations, America’s leadership must Information Agency has doubled the and global themes in his discourse this nation of the longest and strongest watchmen waketh but in vain.” be guided by the lights of learning and shortwave broadcasting powers of the expansion in our peacetime economic reason — or else those who confuse Voice of America and increased ANALYSIS history. ANALYSIS rhetoric with reality and the plausible broadcasting hours by 30 per cent, The most sophisticated passage of the This will go down, like Kennedy’s with the possible will gain the increased Spanish language speech, pointing out that US prestige ANALYSIS second speech during the Cuban ascendancy with their seemingly swift broadcasting to Cuba and Latin in the world rests more on its status The second slightly odd lurch of sense missile crisis, Richard Nixon’s words and simple solutions to every problem. America from one to nine hours a day, as a beacon of freedom than on its in the speech, the forced suggestion in the event of disaster with Apollo 11 There will always be dissident voices in increased seven-fold the number of military capability. This passage that successful diplomacy requires and Eisenhower’s speech about failed the land, expressing opposition American books translated for Latin presages the real reason why the Cold social justice at home. One of the D-Day landings, as one of those without alternative, finding fault but American readers, and taken a host of War will be won. In a speech at the main tasks of writing a set-piece famous speeches that were never never favour, perceiving gloom on other steps to carry our message of Brandenburg Gate in 1987, in which speech is finding a way to thread made. The speech ends with a line every side and seeking influence truth and freedom to all corners of the he implored Mikhail Gorbachev to together disparate topics with a single from Psalm 127 that defines an without responsibility. earth. And that is also why we have “tear that wall down”, Ronald Reagan theme. Kennedy has not quite important role for America as the regained the initiative in the made exactly this case. Kennedy had managed it. watchman of the world. That has by ANALYSIS exploration of outer space, launching got there long before. no means been the dominant view in The first task in most speeches is to more than 130 vehicles into Earth Our adversaries have not abandoned America, which is often tempted by a make a link between the parish orbit, putting into operation valuable Finally, it should be clear by now that a their ambitions, our dangers have not more isolationist stance. Kennedy’s notices and the principal theme. This weather and communications nation can be no stronger abroad than diminished, our vigilance cannot be death, in that context, leaves many isn’t very well crafted. Kennedy satellites, and making it clear to all that she is at home. Only an America which relaxed. But now we have the military, questions, the most looming of which lurches from the leadership and the United States of America has no practises what it preaches about equal the scientific, and the economic is what US involvement in Vietnam learning of the people of Dallas to intention of finishing second in space. rights and social justice will be strength to do whatever must be done would have been.
“…America’s leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason.”
Sound advice from the 35th to the 45th
55 years ago, JFK was silenced. Today, using the latest AI technology, we’ve unsilenced him.
To hear the full Dallas speech search The Times JFK