Reimagining the Pacific: The rhetoric of Nixon, Ford, Carter, and American engagement after Vietnam

Reckard, Bryan R.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121475 Copy

Description

Title

Reimagining the Pacific: The rhetoric of Nixon, Ford, Carter, and American engagement after Vietnam

Author(s)

Reckard, Bryan R.

Issue Date

2023-07-11

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

O’Gorman, Ned

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

O’Gorman, Ned

Committee Member(s)

• Murphy, John
• Finnegan, Cara
• Valdivia, Angharad

Department of Study

Communication

Discipline

Communication

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Rhetoric
• Richard Nixon
• Gerald Ford
• Jimmy Carter
• Communication
• Asia
• Pacific
• Vietnam
• Foreign Policy
• Globalization

Abstract

U.S. presidents have a distinct rhetorical power to define the principles and values that guide U.S. foreign policy and to portray the world as they see it. In doing so, they provide foreign and domestic audiences justifications and explanations of America’s role in the world. All modern presidents need to address international exigencies and crises that the United States faces, while also addressing and defining the United States’ responsibilities and obligations to the world. During the final years of the war in Vietnam and in the war’s aftermath, I argue that Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter needed to balance policies of U.S. military withdrawal from the Asia-Pacific while preserving the perception that the United States still maintained power and presence in the region. In the wake of Vietnam, speeches and remarks made by Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter sought to reshape perceptions of the United States as a superpower and world leader in spite of the Vietnam catastrophe and other perceived failures in the Pacific. In this dissertation, I examine this “rhetoric of withdrawal.” While no president wants to frame withdrawal as withdrawal, Nixon, Ford, and Carter actively sought to depict policies of withdrawal as intentional and strategic shifts in policy. Beginning in the late 1960s, I show how Nixon developed a realist rhetoric and ethos that claimed for him the unique authority to see the situation in Asia and the Pacific accurately, where others could not. Portraying the Pacific region as a tinderbox ready to explode, Nixon made efforts to convince domestic and foreign audiences that U.S. leadership and power was needed to maintain the integrity of the region. Later, in a bid to influence Soviet behavior in Vietnam via triangular diplomacy, Nixon’s realist rhetoric allowed him to establish a relationship with communist China based on “interests.” Here he rhetorically transformed the Asia-Pacific into just another geopolitical “sphere” among others. By contrast, amidst the global economic crisis of the 1970s Ford rhetorically transformed the Asia-Pacific region from a region of militarization to that of a market. Whereas Nixon spoke of security interests, Ford emphasized economic interests. Whereas Nixon underscored stability, Ford highlighted growth. In addition, Ford needed to develop an ethos that reinforced his legitimacy as U.S president and as an international leader. Focusing on economics allowed him to display his own expertise. Finally, for Carter, the Asia-Pacific offered an amorphous scene riveted by successful postcolonial movements. In Carter’s rhetoric, therefore, we see an attempt to integrate realist rhetoric emphasizing stability with a moral vision emphasizing progress and change. Moreover, Carter developed an ethos that ran counter to Nixon, he emphasized his moral tenor, downplaying his lack of foreign policy experience. While this study complements and supplements scholarly work regarding the rhetoric of the Cold War and presidential address, it also speaks to questions about U.S. interventionism, isolationism, and empire.

Graduation Semester

2023-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Bryan Reckard

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