Book of Famous Speeches: Inspiring Orations That Changed the World

By Carlo Batà (Editor)

The Speeches That Defined Our EraWhat were the most important and influential speeches of our time? Discover the answers in this book of speeches that changed our world.
Famous historical speeches. This remarkable collection of 38 historic speeches, spanning from post-World War II to the present, offers unparalleled insight into pivotal moments in our recent history. Experience the power of words that shaped nations and understand the visionary minds behind them, from Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'dream' to Malala's impassioned plea for education.
Inspiration for the future and insight into the past. In Famous Speeches, gain a deeper understanding of our evolving world through the voices that changed it forever. Travel back to these monumental moments and experience firsthand the transformative power of oration.
Inside:

- Understand the sentiments and visionary ideas of post-World War II leaders and influencers
- Experience the emotional impact of words that changed the course of history
- Explore speeches by statesmen, scientists, literary figures, entrepreneurs, and advocates for education
- Discover inspiration for the future and deepen your knowledge of some of history's greatest speakers

If you liked The Founders' Speech to a Nation in Crisis; Great Speeches by Frederick Douglass; or The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between, you'll love Famous Speeches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781684814138

Book preview

Introduction

The history of humankind has always been marked by natural catastrophes, migrations, discoveries, revolutions, and wars. But there have also been speeches that marked an era, instilling hope in crucial moments, reawakening the collective conscience of a population—or of all humanity. In the past, the art of oratory was a prestigious subject. It taught speakers to be persuasive, and captivating in the masterful ways of Demosthenes in Ancient Greece or Cicero in the Roman Senate. Great speeches have become increasingly fewer over the years. Even politicians are communicating via Twitter, live videos on Facebook, and blogs more and more often, gaining approval and millions of votes. After all, information access has become easier; all you need is a smartphone connected to Wi-Fi. This compilation of thirty-eight speeches was delivered over a period that ranges from immediately following World War II till date. The authors include politicians and brilliant orators, but they also include scientists, writers, a missionary, an architect, a businesswoman, a talk-show host, and a young girl, Malala Yousafzai, who ended up with three bullets in her head as she was returning home from school and who has not stopped fighting for girls’ rights to education since.

The issues have changed over time, and so have the challenges (such as globalization and its distortions, the problem that Anita Roddick addresses). Yet the substance remains the same: the fear of a nuclear war has become the fear of a climate change that threatens the entire planet, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, stated.

There are speeches about freedom, democracy, the human rights so dear to Eleanor Roosevelt, the national identities of two extremely different countries, Vietnam and India, and homeland. Many of these speeches have instilled ideas or slogans in the minds of the public, words that have become of common use, such as Churchill’s iron curtain.

The tenderness and sensitivity of the popes was moving. Pope John XXIII sent his caresses to the children, and Pope Francis encouraged tenderness as a rule of life, rather like the Dalai Lama who proposed dialogue as the premise for true inner peace.

Millions of people watched these speeches on television or listened to them on the radio, throughout the world. They were fascinated by the charismatic words, moral integrity, tireless passion and sacrifice of the orators, and by those who dedicated their entire existence to the causes they believed in: Mother Teresa, who served the lepers, and by the many who lost their lives (Kennedy, King, Malcolm X, Benazir Bhutto, and Allende, deposed by Pinochet, but the lesser-known Sankara as well)—and by those who languished in a prison cell for decades, like Nelson Mandela.

Then there are those who dedicated their genius to the service of others: Einstein, who insisted on the responsibility of science, and Hawking, who claimed to be satisfied with his small contribution. Two more speakers stand shoulder to shoulder. They were two central figures in ending the Cold War, the shadow of which hovers over many of these speeches: Gorbachev, and the man who invited him to tear down the wall that had become obsolete, Reagan.

There are also many women, who had often remained on the margins of society and now were finally becoming central characters. In addition to those already mentioned, the authors include Evita, Elizabeth II, and Oprah Winfrey who made a heartfelt appeal in favor of the #MeToo movement.

We invite you to read these masterpieces of oratory without restraining the emotions they provoke, in the hope that learning from the past will help build a better world for the present and the future, because one of the most dangerous problems in facing the threats that loom over humankind is indifference, as Elie Wiesel, who survived one of the most horrifying tragedies of the twentieth century, knows well.

Carlo Batà

On June 3, 1944, as the head of the French Committee of National Liberation, Charles de Gaulle became the president of the Provisional Government of France.

Charles de Gaulle

Paris, May 8, 1945

Announcement of the End of World War II in a Broadcast Speech

May 8, 1945 marked the end of World War II in Europe. The date was a dividing line between a period of massacres and genocide and one of hope for a return to civilized life and cohabitation. Adolf Hitler had taken his own life on April 30 and, orphaned of her Führer, Germany had had no choice but to sign an unconditional surrender, placing the future of the country and her people in the hands of the Allies.

Two men embodied the spirit of the resistance during the darkest hours of modern Europe’s history: Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. Charles de Gaulle was born to a Catholic, nationalist family; on June 3, 1944, he became the president of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. His speech to the nation on May 8, 1945, broadcast in the early afternoon following the German surrender, was but the last in a long series. There would have been no May 8 for France had it not been for the plea of the June 18, 1940 broadcast from Radio London—a vehement call to arms addressed to the French people, urging them not to lose hope and to fight the German invader. That was the day the resistance movement against the Vichy government, a Third Reich satellite state that occupied the south-central portion of France, was born.

The beginning of his speech—The war has been won!—after long years of suffering was delivered in a relieved, liberating tone. Throughout the war, de Gaulle, in full dress uniform, embodied the image of a nation that remained free and combative. In fact, for France, maintaining its honor and pride before its allies and before the world was just as important as preserving its economic, political, and colonial interests. It was de Gaulle, the strongest advocate and representative of French grandeur, who exclaimed in 1941: There is a 2,000-yearold pact between the greatness of France and freedom in the world. He was a master of communications. His use of cutting and ironic language was unconventional for a politician and endeared him to his people, who believed in him and had faith in him. His imposing carriage, perfectly combed hair, and Roman nose made him an easily recognizable figure, an icon of the times. As the head of the military and the father of the nation, de Gaulle announced the end of the war and France’s victory. He honored the French and Allied soldiers and civilians who fought in order to prevent Europe and the rest of the world from falling under Nazi domination.

Honor to our people who refused to break or bend, no matter how horrible the ordeal!

CHARLES DE GAULLE (1890–1970)

1909 He enrolled in the Saint-Cyr Military School.

1916 He participated in the World War I Battle of Verdun.

1940–1943 After the German occupation, he became the head of the France Libre movement.

1943–1944 He became the president of the national French Liberation Committee.

1944–1946 He became the president of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.

1958–1959 He performed the duties of the president of the Council of Ministers and minister of National Defense.

1959 He was elected the first president of the Fifth Republic.

1962 He called for a referendum that introduced the direct election of the president of the Republic, which passed with 62% of the votes.

1969 After resigning as the president of the Republic, he was elected member of the Constitutional Council.

The war has been won! Victory is here! It is the victory of the United Nations, of France! The German enemy has just laid down its arms before the armed Allies in the East and the West. The French command was present and a party to this act of capitulation. In light of the state of disorganization in which the German public authorities and military find themselves, groups of enemies here and there may try to proceed, independently, with senseless acts of resistance. But Germany has been defeated and has signed its own downfall!

As the rays of Glory, once again, cause our flag to shine brightly, our homeland turns its thoughts and affection, above all, to those who died for her and to those who, in her service, fought and suffered! None of the hard work of her soldiers, her sailors, her aviators, not one act of courage or self-denial on the part of her sons and daughters who were held prisoner, no mourning, no sacrifice, not one tear will have been in vain.

It is with joy and national pride that the French population sends a brotherly salute to its valiant Allies who, like France, fought long and hard for the same cause; to their heroic troops and those who guide them; and to all those men and women throughout the world who have struggled, suffered, and toiled so that at the end of it all, justice and freedom would triumph.

Honor. Eternal honor to our troops and their commanders. Honor to our people who refused to break or bend, no matter how horrible the ordeal. Honor to the United Nations who mixed their blood with our blood, their hard work with our hard work, their hopes with our hopes and who, today, triumph with us. Ah! Long live France.

General de Gaulle visits the town of Lorient in Brittany, in July 1945. The coastal city, which had been a German U-boat base, had been almost completely destroyed by Allied bombs.

A close-up of the North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in 1965.

Ho Chi Minh

Hanoi, September 2, 1945

Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

On September 2, 1945, in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh addressed hundreds of thousands of people—the entire population of Vietnam, a population who harbored a strong sense of freedom. On that stage, pronouncing the word independence was essentially a declaration of the birth of a new country, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. During World War II, which ended on that day, September 2, six years after it had begun, the French colony of Vietnam had fallen under Japanese domain, like much of Asia. In 1941, Ho Chi Minh founded the Viet Minh League for the Independence of Vietnam to fight the invaders, and instituted a provisional government to implement social reforms.

Japan’s surrender—a few days after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—changed the geopolitical situation in the region. Across Vietnam, thousands of people took to the streets to demand independence. French politics stood at a crossroads. They could return to colonial dominion and enter into a war to reconquer the territories they had lost, or they could accept the request for emancipation. No one in Paris was willing to give up the territories in Indochina. More than once, Ho Chi Minh wrote to the American president, Harry Truman, who had spoken favorably of the self-determination of nations. In his communications, he denounced the revanchist aims of French colonialism and openly asked for help in the fight for independence. But as the United States feared a possible Soviet influence in the area, they decided to aid France. After a few feeble attempts to avoid military conflict with diplomacy, the War of Indochina broke out. In 1954, after hundreds of thousands of deaths, General Giap, the able military strategist who led the Viet Minh fighters, finally defeated the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

The war against the United States was a new chapter in the fight for national sovereignty. Ho Chi Minh died before the end of the conflict. With his death, Vietnam lost the man who had led the country to independence in 1954, the man who had resisted the American army, and the man who had dedicated his entire life to the liberation of his country. At twenty years of age, he had left his country to go to Europe and live in Paris and in London and, later, to the United States. So it was there that his political education began, between one temporary job and another, and it continued when he went to Moscow and China. In all, he was far from his people and homeland for thirty years before he returned to free them.

After the Japanese surrender, our entire population rose up to reconquer its national sovereignty.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

These eternal words come from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, written in 1776. Simply put, the phrase means that all the peoples of the world are born equal with a right to live, to be happy and to be free.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a document from the French Revolution in 1791 also proclaims that Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. These are undeniable truths.

So, for over eighty years, the French colonists, abusing of their flag and the standard of liberty, equality and fraternity have violated our land and oppressed our compatriots. Their actions have been the exact opposite of the ideals of humanity and justice. Politically, they have deprived us of every freedom.

They have imposed inhumane laws upon us. They established three different political regimes in the North, Center and South of Vietnam with the aim of destroying our national unity and impeding the union of our people. They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly oppressed our patriots. They have drowned our uprisings in a sea of blood.

They have repressed public opinion and practiced obscurantist politics. They have imposed the consumption of opium and alcohol in order to weaken our race.

They have sucked us dry economically; they have forced our people into extreme poverty and have ruthlessly pillaged our country. They have looted our rice fields, our forests, our mines and our natural resources. They have taken over the privilege of issuing currency and have monopolized foreign trade. They have invented hundreds of unjustifiable taxes and they have reduced our people, especially our farmers and merchants, to extreme poverty. They have made it impossible for our middle classes to prosper. They have taken cruel advantage of our laborers.

In the autumn of 1940, as the Japanese fascists were preparing for war against the Allies, they invaded Indochina in order to establish new military bases and the French colonists, on bended knee, delivered our country into their hands.

Since then, our people, under the double yoke of the Japanese and the French, have been literally bled dry. The results have been devastating. In the last few months of last year and the first few months of this one, from the Quang Tri Province to the North of Vietnam, more than two million of our fellow citizens have died of starvation.

On March 9, the Japanese disarmed the French troops. The French colonists escaped or surrendered. And so it was that, rather than protecting us, over a period of five years, they had sold our country to the Japanese twice.

Prior to March 9, the Viet Minh Front appealed a number of times to the French, asking them to join in the fight against the Japanese but rather than become an ally, the colonists increased their oppression of the Viet Minh fighters. After the French were defeated, chaos set in and before escaping, they massacred the political prisoners detained at Yen Bai and Cao Bang.

Despite all this, our fellow citizens have treated the French with humaneness and clemency. After the events of March 9, the Viet Minh Front helped a number of Frenchmen cross the border, and saved others from Japanese prisons. It protected the lives and property of all Frenchmen.

In effect, after the autumn of 1940, our country was no longer a French colony but rather a Japanese possession. After the Japanese surrender, our entire population rose up to reconquer its national sovereignty, founding the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The truth of the matter is that our country has taken its independence back, not from the hands of the French but from the hands of the Japanese. […] It is for this reason that we, the members of the Provisional Government, in the name of the entire population of Vietnam, declare our country free from any colonial relations with imperialist France, we annul all treaties signed by France that regard Vietnam and abolish any and all privileges that the French held in our country.

Vietnam has the right to be free and independent and is, in fact, now is a free and independent country.

HO CHI MINH (1890–1969)

1890 He was born in Kim Lien with the name Nguyen Sinh Cung.

1911 He embarked on a trip to Europe to look for work.

1920 He joined the French Communist Party.

1923 He went to Moscow wherehe participated in political education courses.

1930 He founded the Communist Party of Indochina.

1938 While an adviser of Mao Zedong’s troops in China, he changed his name to Ho Chi Minh (He Who Brings the Light).

1941 He returned to Vietnam and created the League for Independence.

1945 He proclaimed independence and became the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1946–1954 Vietnam and France entered into military conflict in the War of Indochina.

1969 He died in Hanoi as the war against the United States continued to rage.

The entire Vietnamese population is of one mind, determined to fight to the end any attempt at aggression on the part of the French colonialists. We believe that the Allies, who recognized the principle of equality among populations at the conferences of Tehran and San Francisco, cannot fail to recognize the independence of Vietnam.

A population that stubbornly battled the domination of the French for more than eighty years, a people who resolutely sided with the Allies in the fight against fascism in recent years—this population has the right to be free, this population has the right to its independence.

It is for this reason that we, the members of the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam solemnly declare to the entire world: Vietnam has the right to be free and independent and is, in fact, now a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese population is determined to rally all of its physical and mental strength, to sacrifice its citizens’ lives and property in order to safeguard their right to freedom and independence.

In 1942, after being arrested by the nationalist forces of the Kuomintang, Nguyen Sinh Cung began using the pseudonym Ho Chi Minh. In this photo taken in 1954, he was visiting a collective farm.

The theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, during a conference at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, on January 17, 1931.

Albert Einstein

New York, December 10, 1945

Address at the Fifth Nobel Anniversary Dinner

On December 10, 1945, under the light of the sumptuous chandeliers of the Astor Hotel in New York, a dinner was held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. Albert Einstein took the opportunity to reiterate the responsibility and duty that lay on the shoulders of all physicists and scientists in regard to the fate of our planet. It was 1945. World War II had just ended, but the sixty-six-year-old Nobel Prize winner for physics was not seeing real signs of a stable and lasting peace among world powers, who were still untrusting and fearful of the horrors of conflict. He called for the establishment of a worldwide supranational authority to whom governments would delegate part of their sovereignty and who would safeguard the secrets of the atomic bomb in order to guarantee security, peace, and wellbeing for all of humanity. Einstein called himself a pacifist, but he was certainly not naive. He knew all too well the nature of man and his intrinsic aggressiveness. In fact, in his correspondence with Sigmund Freud he wrote: "So long as there are men, there