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Jodie Nicotra
Dual Credit 101 Workshop
19 June 2012
Damage Control: How Reagan’s Rhetoric Minimized the Challenger’s Fallout and Unified America
The United States’ space program has historically been an agency that has unified the country
together. The program has not only been an incredible economic engine driving scientific and
technological research, but its bipartisan appeal has created a sense of camaraderie as the country
worked together to send United States’ citizens to the moon and beyond. However, the tragedy of
the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986 threatened to not only question the belief of US superiority in
the space arena, but also to create a wedge in the nation as citizens questioned systemic problems in
NASA and government bureaucracy in general that led to the disaster itself. Despite the firestorm
brewing in the wake of the tragedy, President Ronald Reagan seized the event to perform the duty he
was elected to execute: leading the nation. By using the art of rhetoric and effective pisteis argument
construction to create a unified epicheireme, the nation’s President provided an opportunity for the
nation to mourn together, heal together, and persevere together—all the while turning what could
have been a political catastrophe instead into a political miracle that not only unified a nation, but
elevated his own political standing.
The exigence of such a publicized space mission as Challenger resulting in disaster
demanded a swift response from the nation’s leader. In addition, the President anticipated that the
event would have international ramifications, particularly towards the USSR with whom the US was
competing with for space technology superiority. President Reagan responded wisely and effectively
by delaying the preplanned State of the Union Address to instead convey his message to both a
domestic and international audience .Not only did delaying this message serve to convey to the
American audience the sincerity of Reagan’s message by showing the president’s priorities, but it
also allowed for the effective use of kairos by utilizing a specific time slot that many people,
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including viewers in the international community, were planning on tuning in anyways for, and thus
increased the size and reach of his audience. This time slot allowed the President to meaningfully
reach his audience with a message of condolences for the astronauts’ families, the employees of
NASA, and the American public as a whole, that was viewed as genuine and sincere. In addition, by
utilizing the State of the Union time slot the President was also able to reach an international
audience to communicate a direct message to as well due to his effective use and understanding of
kairos.
Viewers tuning into Reagan’s address immediately felt a palpable sense of ethos. The
camera’s angle starts wide to allow American viewers to see their nation’s banner and seal. This
conveys the sense of trust and belonging to the viewers’ country, and perhaps serves to intimidate
other countries by demonstrating America’s power. However, the camera’s angle slowly zooms in to
focus on the President. Reagan’s impeccable dress inspires a sense of professionalism and ability to
handle the event. By focusing on his face the viewers can see wrinkles in his skin that play to the
idea that his age carries experience that will allow him to lead. When he includes his wife in the
speech by saying “Nancy and I are pained to the core” it makes him relatable as a family man that an
American viewer can trust. His choice of overall common diction allows for most viewers to clearly
understand what he is saying, and makes them feel as if he could be their neighbor. Finally, his
oration is calm and collected conveying a sense of ability and adeptness to handle the tragedy by
placing the viewers’ faith in him.
The President clearly hits an emotional home-run by using pathos to further persuade his
audience. Reagan reminds the viewers that “we as a nation will mourn together” and includes
himself personally in that statement. This tugs on the heart-strings of Americans and develops a
sense of camaraderie and collective responsibility for all Americans to share in this emotional
process. He reaches out specifically to the families affected by the loss and states the individual
names of the astronauts who perished that creates a moment for Americans around the country to
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share in the grief of the families. He refers to the crew-members as “heroes” that further engages
viewers to create a sense of emotional connection to the crew and families as they died in the service
of all Americans. The President reminds the country that the nation is strong and will persevere
through the tragedy by stating “We’ll continue our quest in space…Nothing ends here; our hopes and
journeys continue.” Finally, Reagan closes his speech by making a direct appeal to Christian pathos
by making an emotional connection when he states that the astronauts have touched “the face of
God.”
Reagan provides an effective use of logos to his audience by limiting the amount of time
dedicated to evaluating facts and data surrounding the tragedy, and instead by choosing a few pieces
of information that distract the viewers from the explosion itself and instead attract attention to the
“success” of the space agency and America as a whole. The President reminds the audience that “for
twenty-five years the United States space program “has been “dazl[ing]” the public, but that “we’re
still pioneers” and “the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.” Including this information
is a deliberate and effective device to remind the American public that new technology can and
sometimes does fail. This idea helps to deflect blame for the tragedy to the space program, and
certainly is a ploy to deflect blame from Reagan’s administration itself. However, the subtlety in
which it is communicated is so smooth that the viewer hardly notices the underlying motive. The
President makes an additional logos appeal by presenting a coincidental fact related to the date of the
tragedy by letting viewers know that “three-hundred and ninety years ago, the great explorer Francis
Drake died aboard his ship.” This piece of trivia is an explicit attempt to compare the successes and
tragedies of explorers in the past to the continuing successes and tragedies for the explorers of today.
The juxtaposition is clear, and the audience is reminded of their country’s pivotal role in continued
exploration and their duty to patriotically support these activities.
To this day the Challenger event remains in the forefront of Americans’ minds when it comes
to national tragedies. It shares a spot alongside such disasters as the September 11th attacks and
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Hurricane Katrina. However, a defining difference in the national collective remembrance of these
tragedies is the clear recollection of an incredible orator whose words brought solace to grieving
country; whose message unified the citizens together; and whose wisdom encouraged the nation to
persevere not only despite the tragedy, but because of it. President Ronald Reagan’s effective
understanding of kairos and use of ethos, pathos, and logos wove together to create seamless
epicheireme that the American public needed in the aftermath of the tragedy. Not only did this
oration bring the country together in a time of crisis, it effectively limited his own political fallout
that likely was on the way as the blame-game started. It was a brilliant piece of damage control.
Images convey vast resources America has to respond to the tragedy by showing presents the
aura of a professional man who is capable not only to personally lead the nation, but also to draw
upon vast resources