Checkers: Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon
The purpose of Richard Nixon’s famous “Checkers” Speech is to inform Americans as to why he used $18,000 from a group of his supporters and to persuade them of the truth. He also aims to reveal the flaws in the standing government. The audience of the speech is American citizens who were of voting age at the time and who owned a television. or radio with which to watch or listen to the public address. The genre is a political speech. Richard Nixon’s stance is expressing his story and his reasoning behind it. The media and design is a public announcement made on television and streamed over the radio. Nixon begins his speech by addressing and connecting to the audience saying “My Fellow Americans”. He comes before his audience wanting to truthfully address the situation in which both his honesty and integrity have been questioned. He says that using the money from his supporters was not morally wrong but he regrets doing it. He then states that he did not use the money for personal reasons but to pay for political and campaign expenses. He states that he has proof that he did not use the money for personal reasons in the form of an independent audit. Nixon then gives the audience a brief background of his financial history of relying on himself for the state of his finances. He says the only gift he was given that he kept was a dog name Checkers who was given to him by someone who read that he and his family were trying to get a dog. Nixon begins to close his speech by saying that he is addressing the people of America to gain their confidence as a fellow American. He is not asking for their support in running for Vice President, he is simply asking for them to hear his side of the story. He then begins to talk about the flaws in the current executive officers and how the country is in great danger of becoming corrupt with communism. He then says that President Truman played a great deal in getting the country into this mess and that the best person to get them