In the run-up to Obama's Berlin speech, much has been made of the obvious echos of JFK and Reagan. As the speech is picked over (now and for years to come), all sorts of allusions will be identified, starting with the obvious "walls that cannot stand": "These now are the walls we must tear down."
There are also the familiar little Lincoln motifs -- used less for content than because they are so evocative to our ear, a bit like the King James version for earlier centuries: "now the world will watch and remember what we do here," "form a more perfect union."
What I find continually interesting in Obama's speeches, however, are not just the individual quotations or flourishes, but the way he uses references or allusions to other famous and familiar speeches to structure his own in unexpected ways. His national security speech of July 15 used George Marshall's Harvard speech, but not as a cliched call for another Marshall Plan. Rather, he invoked Marshall as an example of someone who responded with imagination and judgment to a world that presented an entirely new set of challenges -- that changing our "mentality" about our role in the world is as important as any specific policy or Marshall Plan.
Today, a central "structuring" reference comes at the end of Obama's speech. It's not from a speech by an American in Berlin but is equally relevant for the Berlin location because it was from FDR's Four Freedoms speech, delivered in January 1941 when Nazi Germany was FDR's primary concern.
Here's FDR's State of the Union in January 1941:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want--which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.
Obama uses the Four Freedoms to wind up his remarks, presenting them as the ideals that both form the basis of American identity and that are shared with the world -- and via his own father, how he personally came to be both a proud American and, echoing JFK's inaugural,* a "fellow citizen of the world." This links back directly to how he identified himself when he began the speech:
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world..
And then the Four Freedoms and how they connect to both his personal identity and that of his audience:
>What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
He then segues to reinvoke Berlin's history, which he had earlier described extensively. The Berlin reference hooks the end of his speech back to his introduction of himself to the audience via an echo of JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner". When Obama says at the outset he is "a fellow citizen of the world", he shows us by the end of the speech that it is the same claim of citizenship that JFK made.
Rather than repeat explicitly JFK's self-identification as a Berliner, Obama gets to the same place at the end of his speech by connecting the Four Freedoms with the world's response to the Berlin airlift:
It is because of these aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin.So the rhetorical connections are:
- Obama via his father: and JFK Four Freedoms = proud citizen of US + fellow citizen of the world and
- Obama via JFK and Cold War generations:Four Freedoms and Berlin airlift = citizen of Berlin
The final formula, linking the opening and concluding paragraphs, is: FDR's Four Freedoms (American ideals and universal aspirations) plus shared historical experience (JFK and Cold War generations in Berlin) plus a partnership for the future (Obama and audience in US and Europe.
Here are the final paragraphs of Obama's speech.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation – our generation – must make our mark on the world.
People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.
* Given all today's right-wing ruckus over "fellow citizen of the world", here's the quote from JFK's inaugural address:
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
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