A speech, to Kennedy, had no inherent, incantatory power. He never - TopicsExpress

A speech, to Kennedy, had no inherent, incantatory power. He never believed, as romantics do, that oratory is alchemy—that if he got the words just right, he could change water into wine. Speech was, instead, an augury, a precursor of action, never a substitute for it, and Kennedy was disinclined (sometimes, as in the case of civil rights, much too disinclined) to say anything until he was ready to do something. Otherwise it was just “talk”—and talking too much, he once cautioned Sorensen, would only bore the public (and, one suspects, Kennedy himself). Kennedy was relieved to learn that Franklin Roosevelt had given few fireside chats. “Words alone are not enough,” Kennedy planned to say that day in Dallas, in a speech he never had the chance to deliver. “If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.