Images of savagery in American justifications for war

Abstract

This paper identifies the essential characteristics of victimage rhetoric in American justifications for war. The Johnson administration's insistence on the aggression‐from‐the‐North thesis is the starting point for the analysis. Close inspection of the administration's efforts reveals that the enemy is portrayed as a savage, i.e., an aggressor, driven by irrational desires for conquest, who is seeking to subjugate others by force of arms. This image of the enemy is intensified by a contrasting image of the United States as a representative of civilization who is rational, tolerant of diversity, and pacific. Further investigation confirms that the contrasts of force vs. freedom, irrationality vs. rationality, and aggression vs. defense permeate the substance and style of the call‐to‐arms throughout American history. They provide the internal dynamic which integrates recurrent form into a genre of rhetorical discourse.