Is it Gettysburg? The day which shall live in infamy? Is it Washington speech about having grown blind in the service of his country?

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  2. FDR’s 1942 Flag Day speech. It is basically the new foreign policy which endures until now, and at the time was a benchmark moment after a period of isolationism. The US had dabbled in empire before WW2 but nothing like during and after. Even if it was never meant to signal that turn in our history, it does.

  3. So many to choose from, but one would be FDR’s “The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”.

  5. I wouldn’t call it most important (I don’t believe there’s such a thing), but I do enjoy Reagans Berlin wall speech. It’s a little long, but I find it a very powerful speech.

  7. Copying from my [earlier answer](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/104ysf0/comment/j381upv/) to this question:

    Lincoln’s [Gettysburg Address](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address) and MLK’s [I Have a Dream](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream) are easily the two most known speeches from American history. Most high schoolers will have read both.

    After that, people mostly know random quotes from speeches but haven’t read the whole thing:

    * *”*[*We choose to go to the Moon*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_choose_to_go_to_the_Moon) *in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”* – JFK
    * *”*[*Ich bin ein Berliner*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner)*”* – JFK
    * [*”Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall.”*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall!) – Reagan
    * *”Yesterday, December 7, 1941—*[*a date which will live in infamy*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Infamy_speech)*—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”* – FDR
    * *”*[*Give me liberty or give me death!*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_me_liberty,_or_give_me_death!)*” -* Patrick Henry. I hesitate to put this here since we don’t have the full text, but I’d argue it still fits the category of “most important speeches”
    * “[*What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F)” – Frederick Douglass

    And a few are well known on substance but not usually quoted as commonly as the above:

    * [Eisenhower’s farewell address](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower%27s_farewell_address) on the military industrial complex.
    * [Washington’s farewell address](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_Farewell_Address) which touches on so many topics, including:
    * The danger of political parties
    * The danger of permanent alliances
    * On religion: *”Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”*

  8. The speech President Whitmore gave before the final assault on the alien mother ship to save the planet was a pretty good one.

  9. I Have a Dream

    Gettysburg Address

    Lincoln’s Right makes Might speech at Cooper Union

    Nixon’s resignation

  10. *”The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.”*

    …

    *”And so it is to the printing press–to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news–that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.”*

    https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-newspaper-publishers-association-19610427

  12. I’ll echo others here- the Gettysburg Address and I have a dream. I can’t think of any others more iconic and important.

  17. I’d say Eisenhower’s farewell address/MIC speech. I think it is quite foreboding given today’s environment and political climate. I think it’s particularly horrifying given Ike’s resume and history as one of the most revered generals in US history and he even states that he is unable to stop the MIC.

    Perhaps not as important IMO, but beautiful was William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold speech.

  18. There’s a lot but I’d argue George Washington’s farewell speech. It is important in its content on not forming parties and such but I’d say it’s more so important in that he actually gave one, turned over the reins of power, and retired. Regardless of how “undemocratic” American democracy in the late 1700s might seem to us today it was very unique at the time. The experiment hadn’t really been tried elsewhere and Washington willingly stepped down from power. Unlike in some other new democratic governments there was a peaceful transition of power after two terms as president. And keep in mind that there was no law banning someone from being president for more than two terms until FDR was elected an unprecedented FOUR times.

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