Richard Nixon's April 30, 1970 address on Cambodia: The “ceremony” of confrontation

1 August 1973

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in Speech Monographs

Vol. 40 (3) , 167-181
https://doi.org/10.1080/03637757309375795

Abstract

This essay examines President Nixon's April 30, 1970 address announcing the American incursion into Cambodia. Examining the perceptual patterns of the speech, the authors found that Nixon's remarks led to a climax which justified the war on ritualistic rather than Cold War premises. The last third of the speech was content analyzed. The resulting term clusters were then interpreted for their symbolic significance. The authors found the President's remarks in conformity with the potlatch ceremony of the Kwakiutl Indians. The essay concludes by relating the perceptual patterns and analogical matrix of the potlatch to trends which may be developing on the international scene, and calls for the rhetorical critic to become aware of ritualistic elements in public communication.

Keywords

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:

The rhetorical predictability of Richard M. Nixon
Today's Speech, 1971
To Make my Name Good
Published by University of California Press ,1967
Fighting With Property
Published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,1966