n he worried a great deal about appearing too young for the job and this caused him to be quite unnecessarily stiff and formal during public appearances. In confronting all these political drawbacks Kennedy knew that one of the surest ways to overcome them was to provide the impression of a potentially tough leader in dealing with the international crises that always seemed to loom over the horizon during the period. At the time of the election, for example, Americans were extremely worried about the threat of the Soviet Union and had begun to turn away from the popular Eisenhower because, among other things, the launching of the Sputnik satellite by the Russians seemed very threatening. Even though the Soviets were years away from being able to launch missiles from space "Eisenhower was unable to make that case to the American people [and] the result was near national hysteria" (Beschloss 64).
If television was key to the winning of the 1960 election, Kennedy knew that this was as much because Nixon made a negative impression as because he had succeeded in appealing to the people. Therefore it was extremely important to the new president to seize control of the moment and make a significant impact in his inaugural speech. This is a moment in a presidential career that can have no significance at all or a very great deal. Eisenhower, for example, was the best-known American in the world by the end of World War II and was elected by a landslide. He would hardly have seen his inaugural speech as a key moment. But Kennedy had to overcome his lack of a clearly defined image and so he seized the moment by drawing on one of his greatest strengths, his oratorical skills.
Kennedy is often remembered as a great orator. But, a
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