In times of crisis in America, the president is expected to present a speech to the nation that will help Americans deal with the event that has occurred. Two major events that the presidents had to respond to were when Pearl Harbor was bombed and when the Twin Towers were attacked. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush both had to deliver speeches to the nation after these major attacks that shook Americans deeply. Both speeches got the desired reaction when presented to their intended audiences, which was the congress for FDR and the nation for Bush. But, when giving a speech of this significance, wording as well as tone must be chosen very carefully. FDR and Bush both created speeches that allowed them to respond to the attacks on America, while using different tones and key words that were used to affect the audience. 

With both speeches created in response to America being attacked, there are a few similarities within the speech that must be noted. The first being that they were made to address the fact that America was attack and suffered a loss of lives as a result of it. Both presidents mention in their speeches that the loss of lives is unacceptable, especially when both attacks were on American soil. This was in the speech to make the audience more aware of what those attacks had cost America, if they did not know already. The next similarity was that both speeches made it so that action must be taken to right the wrong that happened when America was attacked. Each speech creates a feeling that if action is taken in response to the attacks, then those who think nothing should be done are not truly what being an American is about. The speeches are about to create that feeling in the audience through their tones. 

But, with these two speeches, the tones are greatly different. The main difference in the tones were that FDR's tone was more angry and ready for revenge, while Bush's speech created a more patriotic feeling in the listener. FDR's main goal when giving his speech to the Congress was to make sure that they agree with his idea to finally enter the war. He uses his angry tone in the speech to create the feeling that those who do not agree with him need to really think about what being an American means. He used his speech to make sure that the Congress was especially upset about the attack and would do whatever it took to get revenge for it. Bush on the other hand used a patriotic tone to make sure the American people were not afraid of another attack but rather, they were ready to face those that had attacked them. Bush was able to use his speech to create a very patriotic feeling for the Americans that listened to it. He was able to make the attack just a bump that America will get over with its strength as a country. He used the idea that America will not let anything destroy the foundation of freedom to make the audience feel more secure after the attacks on 9/11. 

Within both speeches are simple words or phrases that have both hidden meanings behind them as well as creating an impression in the listener. To make sure that the speech has the intended effect on the audience, the president has many people that write as well as rewrite their speeches many times. Each speech is written with what the president wants the audience to hear but they also want to leave enough open ended phrases in the speech that the president will be able to use it to justify their actions in the future. In FDR's speech, he uses the phrase "-it contained no threat or hint of war or armed offence" as well as "-expressions of hope for continued peace" to create a feeling of betrayal in the mind of the Congress. Those words made it seem like Japan was one of America's close allies that would have never betrayed the United States so their attack affected America greater than it otherwise would have. This created the feeling in Congress that action must be taken so that a betrayal like Japans would never happen again. FDR also repeatedly used the words "yesterday" as well as "last night" to create the feeling that Japan is attacking places at a fast pace. Those words create an urgent feeling in the listener because the places Japan attacked in one day were all listed and read one after the other which made the Japanese look like they were able to attack many places in only a few hours. This made the Congress think about how quickly they needed to be able to respond to the attack before Japan decides to attack another place. This allowed FDR to get involved with the war with the Congress's approval because of the rushed feeling that the speech created in the audience. 

In Bush's speech, he started it with calling America a "great nation" as well as the "brightest beacon of freedom and opportunity in the world" to create pride in Americans. These words were chosen so that, through this tragedy, America will still stand tall because its people are still standing tall. Bush wanted to make sure that the people that attacked the United States know that their tactic did not work because America is stronger than that. The feeling that America is stronger though, is only created through the people that live there. If the audience did not feel strong about being able to take action about the attack, then America would not be very strong when viewed by other countries. Bush then used the phrase "no distinction between the terrorists who committed these crimes and those who harbor them" as well as that he will "strongly condemning these attacks". Bush is using these phrases, the same way FDR did, so that in the future he would be able to have some room to deal with the people that attacked on his own terms. These phrases also help to reassure the American people that a lot of action was being taken to make sure an attack of that scale never happens again. 

With each speech specifically tailored with how they will affect the audience in mind, the actual people that will be in the audience play a major part in how the speech is to be written. With FDR's speech, it was written with the knowledge that it will be read to the Congress and that FDR needed them to agree to what he wanted to do. FDR had the speech created so that any Congress member that disagreed with his methods of dealing with what happened at Pearl Harbor would seem unpatriotic. Bush's audience was the whole nation that was in a shocked and fearful state since the attack on the Twin Towers. Bush needed his speech to be able to calm the people as well as reassure them that this act of violence would not go unpunished. He had the speech created so the audience that is listening believes that he had everything under control after the initial chaos that the attack caused. This feeling helped settle the crowd as well as made them more willing to do whatever was needed to make sure that it did not happen again. 

When a nation is attacked, it is up to the president to make sure that his speech is able to control the situation to his advantage. To make sure that they are able to control the situation, they must decide their tone as well as the phrases they need to have put in their speech. Each sentence must be carefully crafted with the audience in mind so that the president is able to use their words from this speech in the future when dealing with the situation. Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush both had to give speeches after the United States was attacked. This made it so their speeches needed to be crafted so that the audience would be pacified by their words as well as able to agree to whatever measures the president decided needed to be taken. While the speeches might have a few differences, they both got their points across as well as made their intended audience agree to what the president thought was necessary to be done about the attacks.

