Of mighty mice and meek men: Contextual reconstruction of the Iranian airbus shootdown

Abstract

When the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down Iran Air 655 (Airbus) on 3 July 1988, the Reagan administration initially reacted in a reserved and perfunctory manner; however, within two weeks the discourse had assumed a more vituperative demeanor. These disparate rhetorical styles suggest the premise that the administration redefined the context from which it communicated to the world. This study analyzes administrative rhetoric of the United States government during the Airbus crisis, examining all written verbatim records produced by the administration within a thirty day period following the shootdown. By studying the interplay of text and context, as this relates to the concept of rhetorical situation, we demonstrate that the administration contextually reconstructed the entire incident, that George Bush's speech before the United Nations on 14 July 1988 was the culmination of this change, and that discourse following Bush's speech evinced rhetorical qualities characteristic of administrative discourse during the Korean airliner shootdown in 1983.