Constituting the Cold War Commonplace: U.S. Presidential Public Address and the Inventional Possibilities of Speaking in Situ
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Constituting the Cold War Commonplace: U.S. Presidential Public Address and the Inventional Possibilities of Speaking In Situ A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Allison M. Prasch IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Advisor May 2016 © Allison M. Prasch 2016 Acknowledgements Writing a dissertation, like raising a child, takes a village. I may have written these words, but there are numerous people who made it possible to do so. The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota allowed me to concentrate fully on this project during the 2015-2016 academic year. The Department of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota provided summer funding and other travel monies that supported trips to the archive. The Graduate Research Partnership Program funded by the College of Liberal Arts also provided a research stipend that helped me to jump-start this project. This project has been shaped by many smart scholars, but none more so than the members of my committee. My advisor, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, took a chance on me in 2009 when she signed an over-eager, non-degree-seeking student into her political persuasion course. She supported me every step of the way—reading and critiquing drafts, talking through ideas, writing letters, offering encouragement, and sharing meals and West Wing episodes in a frigid Philadelphia apartment. I have been privileged to learn from and be mentored by such an accomplished scholar, teacher, and rhetorical critic. I also am grateful to call her a friend. Vanessa Beasley agreed to be a part of this project even when she had no institutional obligation to do so, and gave generously of her time across the miles and at numerous conferences. Richard Graff first pointed me to the scholarly work on deixis and patiently translated Greek and Latin while I furiously took notes. Ronald Walter Greene consistently challenged me to think outside the box and to i take risks, and this project is so much better because of it. Throughout my graduate career, Art Walzer has been a selfless teacher, mentor, editor, and friend. I hope to be as generous with my future students as he has been to me and so many others. At Minnesota, I have been fortunate to work with smart colleagues who have also become good friends. Sky Anderson, Shelby Bell, Matthew Bost, Diane Cormany, Mia Fisher, Wes Hansen, Al Hiland, Emma Bedor Hiland, Daniel Horvath, Heather Ashley Hayes, Rebecca Kuehl, Kaitlyn Patia, Kate Ranachan, Dana Schowalter, Shannon Stevens, Raechel Tiffe, David Tucker, Jules Wight, and Sarah Wolter have been wonderful officemates and comrades. Shelby and I met on the first day of graduate school, and her friendship will always be one of my most treasured memories from the past six years. Bea Dehler, Jennifer Hammer, and Lauren Sietsema went above and beyond to ensure that some of the most important things—like paychecks, travel funding, and FMLA—were taken care of. Angela Brandt saved me more than once, and always did so with a smile. During their respective tenures as Director of Graduate Studies, both Mary Vavrus and Mark Pedelty have offered wise counsel and helpful advice. Edward Schiappa and Ronald Walter Greene provided unparalleled support for my research, teaching, and job search process, even amidst their many other responsibilities as department chair. My undergraduate research assistants—Brook Garzone, Jessica Gerbert, Tom Kachelmacher, Kory Schulte, and Lizzie Sukut—uncovered many important newspaper clippings and editorials that helped me to tell the story well. Although writing can often be a lonely process, I have been blessed with academic mentors, friends, and family who have made it less so. Karrin Vasby Anderson, ii Vanessa Beasley, Maegan Parker Brooks, Bonnie Dow, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Zornitsa Keremidchieva, Angela Ray, Cindy Koenig Richards, Alyssa Samek, Belinda Stillion Southard, and Mary Vavrus have been mentors and friends. Individually and collectively, they have gone out of their way to welcome, support, and encourage me as a younger scholar. I hope to emulate their kindness and generosity. Mary Stuckey and John Murphy took time out of their busy lives and own research projects to offer helpful feedback on various stages of this dissertation and other articles. Zoë Hess Carney, Megan Fitzmaurice, Elizabeth Gardner, and Esther Liu have been a tangible answer to prayer. Their friendship came at just the right time, and they inspire and challenge me as researchers, teachers, and women of faith. Sue Prasch and Tesa Bertell have given me the most precious gift—time—so that I could research, write, and complete this dissertation with an active toddler. My in-laws, Greg and Sue Prasch, and my parents, Ben and Rochelle Platter, have cheered me on, especially in these final months. This project is dedicated to the two most important men in my life. My son, Oliver, has been with me from the earliest stages of this project. His joy, zest for life, infectious laughter, playfulness, determination, and sweetness have been my saving grace. His birth and life remind me of what really matters. My husband, Jason, has been the most supportive partner, co-parent (often parenting solo so I could write), proofreader, confidante, and friend. He is the one who convinced me to apply to graduate school and has been with me and for me ever since. I will be forever grateful to him for putting his dreams on hold so that mine could become a reality. iii Dedication To Jason, for believing in me, with me, and for me and to Oliver, our apodeixis of grace iv Abstract Although the “spatial” turn has generated significant advances in many areas of rhetorical theory and criticism, few scholars have considered how speakers (and specifically U.S. presidents) have drawn on the symbolic and physical elements of the speech setting as a material means of persuasion. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to demonstrate how U.S. presidents have invoked place as a rhetorical strategy. I contend that recent rhetorical approaches to space and place offer a fruitful theoretical and methodological perspective that enlarges and enriches our understanding of U.S. presidential public address as rhetoric designed for and delivered in situ, or in place. In this dissertation, I analyze three examples of Cold War presidential discourse: Harry S. Truman’s 1947 speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the Lincoln Memorial, John F. Kennedy’s 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” address at the Rudolph Wilde Platz in West Berlin, and Ronald Reagan’s 1984 commemoration of D-Day at Pointe du Hoc, France. I argue that Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan invoked place to (1) invest the speech setting with symbolic meaning; (2) harness always already present political and cultural symbols to build conceptual and literal commonplaces (topoi) for ideological metaphors, analogies, and networks of shared meaning embedded in that place; (3) constitute a specific geopolitical vision of the world and the United States’ role in it; and (4) reaffirm their role as moral leader and head of state. This study also offers a theoretical and methodological framework—specifically, a rhetorical theory of deixis—for analyzing the persuasive power of rhetoric in situ. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ i Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iv Abstract .............................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi Chapter One: The Significance of Place in U.S. Presidential Public Address ............ 1 Presidential Ethos and Presence in Place .................................................................................... 7 Place and the U.S. Presidency ................................................................................................... 11 The Cold War Commonplace .................................................................................................... 23 Guiding Assumptions and Outline of Chapters ......................................................................... 32 Chapter Two: Toward a Rhetorical Theory of Deixis ................................................. 41 Classical Invocations of Place ................................................................................................... 46 (Re)Locating Place in the Public Address Tradition ................................................................. 54 Toward a Rhetorical Theory of Deixis ...................................................................................... 66 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 89 Chapter Three: Truman at the Lincoln Memorial ...................................................... 90 Setting the Scene: From World War II to the Cold War ........................................................... 92 Harry S. Truman, a Son of the South ........................................................................................ 98 The Lincoln Memorial and the Rhetorical Power of Place ....................................................