When President Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland in November 1995, Vinca LaFleur helped him find the words to inspire new hope for peace. The Financial Times entitled its commentary on the president’s speeches “Ciceronian Clinton”; the Times of London called his Belfast Mackie plant address “one of the finest” of his presidency; and the Guardian newspaper advised the British prime minister to “hire that man’s speechwriter.”
Working at the White House combined two of Vinca’s passions: writing and international relations. During her three years as a foreign policy speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs, she accompanied President Clinton to Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Previously, she wrote speeches for Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and before that served as a human rights analyst for the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
Since leaving the White House, Vinca has written and edited speeches, articles, books, and reports for corporate executives, former senior government officials, royalty, prominent think tanks, and public figures. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she also has published under her own name on issues from poverty to communications, and served as a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Additionally, Vinca is a sought-after educator on the art and craft of speechwriting, and has conducted workshops for business, government, and university audiences in the United States and abroad.
Vinca graduated summa cum laude from Yale and holds a master’s from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She and her husband, scientist David LaFleur, live in Washington with their two children.
A few notes from the week: Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave a terrific speech to a Joint Session of Congress this week. Among the many lovely sections, a moving tribute to our shared sacrifice in the darkest days of the last century: Cemetery after cemetery across Europe honours the memory of American soldiers, resting row […]
Jake Melville, one of our talented young associates at West Wing Writers, has the lead feature in the latest issue of The Influential Executive newsletter. His topic? How to Bridge the Generational Communication Gap — with pointers every Boomer executive can use on how to keep it real, drop the formality, and find humor that […]
February 27, 2009 – 7:00 pm
Before we say goodbye to February and our bicentennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth, I wanted to post this piece of magnificence — a reminder that great communication comes in many forms. Thank you Maira Kalman!
February 21, 2009 – 10:57 am
Funny bit here on what to expect (not much) from Oscar acceptance speeches. Evidently emcee Hugh Jackman has some plans to spice up the ceremony “I haven’t told anyone this, but we are going to do most of it naked and we’re going to sing through the whole show,” the affable actor joked during an […]
February 19, 2009 – 5:47 pm
I’m often asked about the path one takes to become a presidential or Cabinet-level speechwriter. There’s no single route, but certainly one of the avenues runs through journalism. Politico has a piece today on the half-dozen journalists who’ve left the media world to join the Obama administration: On Tuesday, Cox’s Scott Shepard joined Sen. John […]
February 16, 2009 – 9:36 pm
Worth Reading: This thoughtful piece by novelist Zadie Smith in the New York Review of Books, exploring President Obama’s ability to speak in the “many-colored voice, the multiple sensibility” that we celebrate in our artists but have not typically prized in our politicians. Here’s Jack Shafer’s summary of the Smith piece in Slate. And if […]
February 12, 2009 – 11:33 pm
It’s not the kind of movie likely to grace the multiplex at the mall, but indie film fans with an interest in oratory might be tempted by “Great Speeches from a Dying World,” a documentary exploring the lives of nine homeless men and women in Seattle. Evidently, each subject’s life is framed by the recitation […]
February 10, 2009 – 9:11 pm
I have to disagree with Ed’s interpretation of President Obama’s remarks on tax cuts. When you consider the president’s comment in context, it seems clear that when he says “tax cuts alone can’t solve our problems,” he isn’t suggesting that the prior administration didn’t spend enough, but rather that the monies were not spent on […]
February 5, 2009 – 9:14 pm
One of speechwriters’ tools of the trade is economy of expression — not choosing a four-syllable word when a two-syllable one will do; not larding up a phrase with adverbs when a single tough verb would suffice; not taking an entire paragraph to express a sentence’s worth of ideas. (And some might say, not using […]
February 4, 2009 – 11:37 am
Mark was not impressed with newly appointed Senator Roland Burris’ first remarks on the Senate floor, primarily because the focus of the Senator’s statement was an enthusiastic endorsement of Eric Holder. But leaving our own opinions of the new attorney general aside, I think it’s worth noting the way Senator Burris opened his remarks — […]
February 3, 2009 – 12:11 pm
I’m a Hillary fan. Always have been, from her days at the White House to the Senate to the campaign trail to C Street — and her gracious remarks at her swearing-in ceremony reminded me of why. I appreciate the language she’s been using lately about smart power, smart people, and being smarter “about how […]
January 31, 2009 – 6:35 pm
President Obama’s recent interview with Al Arabiya made global headlines, but I enjoyed this behind-the-scenes conversation with Al Arabiya’s Washington bureau chief Hisham Melham, describing what it was like to get a call from an NSC contact that morning, with the message, “I’m either going to make your day or ruin it: the president wants […]
January 26, 2009 – 2:00 pm
With the annual Alfalfa Club dinner just around the corner, Washington is entering the so-called “Silly Season” of political speechwriting, when humor prevails from the podium. For those interested in what it’s like to write for the Comedian-in-Chief, I commend Mark Katz’ Washington Monthly piece from January/February 2004, “Mirth of a Nation.” And for more […]
January 24, 2009 – 12:52 pm
Last week I had the pleasure of appearing on a Brookings Institution panel devoted to the implications of President Obama’s inaugural address for U.S. foreign policy. Many of the questions my co-panelists Michael Gerson, Michael Fullilove, Carlos Pascual and I received had to do with signals being sent (or not) to specific countries and governments […]
January 20, 2009 – 4:15 pm
We already knew that President Obama would author a new chapter in presidential communication. Beyond his personal writing talents and his signature speaking style, he and his team have made the most of new technologies to spread his message — with the result that the clock has been turned back on the soundbite-ization of America; […]
