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Abstract
This article examines the discourse of U.S. relief efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and argues that exceptionalist rhetorics rely on citizen virtue to motivate state action. Examining speeches and interviews by U.S. presidents and newspaper articles and editorials from domestic news sources, themes of compassion, humanitarianism, and global leadership converge to form an exceptionalist rhetoric of compassionate generosity that legitimates U.S. global hegemony. This critique highlights how, in moments of international crisis, virtues are mobilized to buttress America's moral position and advances a rhetoric of humanitarian militarism.
He would like to thank Robert L. Ivie and Robert E. Terrill for their helpful feedback, as well as the two anonymous reviewers. An earlier version of this article was presented at the National Communication Association Convention.
Notes
“US Private Giving Abroad Vastly Exceeds US Government Aid,” Voice of America News Service (Washington, DC; April 18, 2006); George W. Bush, “President Asks Bush and Clinton to Help Raise Funds for Tsunami Relief,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/print/20050103-12.html (speech, January 3, 2005).
“Tsunami Legacy: Extraordinary Giving and Unending Strife,” New York Times, December 25, 2005, late edition, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093/. The Times reported that $13.6 billion was pledged for tsunami relief, $566 million of which came from private U.S. citizens.
George W. Bush, “President and Presidents Clinton, Bush Discuss Tsunami Relief Efforts,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/print/20050308-9.html (speech, March 8, 2005).
Rizal Sukma, Islam in Indonesian Foreign Policy (New York: Routledge, 2003), 106–113.
Ian Storey, “Hospital Ships Can Be China's Diplomats,” The Straits Times (Singapore), April 8, 2009, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Michael V. Bhatia, War and Intervention: Issues for Contemporary Peace Operations (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2003), 18–19.
Nancy Gibbs, “The Good Samaritans,” Time, December 19, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Mark Woods, “It's Been a Year for Samaritans,” Florida Times-Union, December 23, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 339 & 389.
Helmut Koster, Introduction to the New Testament: History and Literature of Early Christianity, vol. 2 (New York: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 2000), 88.
Ibid.
Ibid.
I am indebted to one of the anonymous reviewers for this insight.
Bush, “President Asks Bush.” ¶1.
Ibid.
Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2000), 100.
Lauren Gail Berlant, Compassion: The Culture and Politics of an Emotion (New York: Routledge, 2004), 1.
Bush, “President Asks Bush.” ¶2.
Ibid.
Ibid.
George W. Bush, interview by Barbara Walters, 20/20, ABC News, January 14, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
George W. Bush, “President Discusses Tsunami Relief in Radio Address,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/print/20050101.html (speech, January 1, 2005).
Editorial, “Render Unto Ceasar,” Investor's Business Daily, March 14, 2007, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Ibid.
Madsen, American Exceptionalism, 13.
Richard T. Hughes, Myths America Lives By (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2003), 19.
Neil Baldwin, The American Revelation: Ten Ideals that Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005), 1–2; Hughes, Myths America Lives By, 19.
Hughes, Myths America Lives By, 19.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (New York: Peter Eckler Publishing Co., 1918), 57.
Arnon Gutfeld, American Exceptionalism: The Effects of Plenty on the American Experience (Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2002), 23.
Deborah L. Madsen, American Exceptionalism (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998), 1.
Tarla Rai Peterson, “Jefferson's Yeoman Farmer as Frontier Hero: A Self Defeating Mythic Structure,” Agriculture and Human Values 7 (1990): 9.
Ibid.
Robert L. Ivie, “Presidential Motives for War,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 60 (1974): 337–345.
Robert L. Ivie, “Savagery in Democracy's Empire,” Third World Quarterly 26 (2005): 55. Additionally, this point is developed in Thomas R. Hietala's Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003). Hietala contends that manifest destiny motivated American expansion throughout the nineteenth century. It's important to note, however, that manifest destiny refers specifically to expanding territory and, thus, is an issue of colonization rather than soft power.
Andrew Rojecki, “Rhetorical Alchemy: American Exceptionalism and the War on Terror,” Political Communication 25 (2008): 68 & 77.
Bryan C. Taylor, “The Means to Match Their Hatred: Nuclear Weapons, Rhetorical Democracy, and Presidential Discourse,” Presidential Quarterly 37 (2007): 670.
Judy Woodruff, “Powell Reports Bach on Tsunami Devastation and Relief,” CNN Inside Politics, January 10, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
David C. Mason, “It Never Seems That We Do Enough,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 6, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
George W. Bush, “President Discusses Tsunami Relief in Radio Address,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/print/20050101.html (speech, January 1, 2005).
Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997), 20.
Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 5.
Ibid., 13.
George W. Bush, “President Discusses Support for Earthquake and Tsunami Victims,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/print/20041229-1.html (speech, December 29, 2004).
Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004), 3.
George H. W. Bush and William J. Clinton, interview by Larry King, Larry King Live, CNN, January 9, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
William J. Clinton, “President and Presidents Clinton, Bush Discuss Tsunami Relief Efforts,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/print/20050308-9.html (speech, March 8, 2005).
Bush and Clinton, interview by Larry King.
Ibid.
Andrew Kohut, “America's Image in the World: Findings from the Pew Global Attitudes Project,” Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. Committee on Foreign Affairs. U.S. House of Representatives, March 14, 2007, 1.
“Competing over Compassion,” Financial Times (London), January 6, 2005. http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Martin Regg Cohn, “America Shows its Face,” Toronto Star, February 13, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Rubin, “U.S. Policy's Alienation is Far-reaching,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 30, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Rubin, “U.S. Policy's Alienation.”
Barbara Demick and Esther Schrader, “Indonesia Wants All Foreign Troops Out by March,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Colin Powell, interview by Tim Russert, Meet the Press, NBC News, January 2, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Powell, interview by Tim Russert; Robert D. McFadden, “U.S. Copters Speed Pace of Aid for Indonesia Refugees,” The New York Times, January 2, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; Elizabeth Becker, “U.S. Nearly Triples Tsunami Aid Pledge, to $950 Million,” The New York Times, February 10, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Jim VandeHei and Robin Wright, “Bush Says America Will Lead Global Relief Effort,” The Washington Post, December 30, 2004, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
“Donation Surge Sends Tsunami Aid to Half a Billion Dollars,” Agence France Presse, December 30, 2004, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093. The figures here do not include the amount of money EU member nations were required to give as part of the EU relief package; “One to Rule Them All,” Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia), February 19, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Bush, “President Discusses.”
Scott McClellan, “Press Briefing,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/print/20050110-8.html (speech, January 10, 2005).
Even though India was one of the nations hit by the 2004 tsunami, they sent substantial aid to neighboring countries immediately. Consequently, India was included as one of the “core countries” the Bush Administration refers to when speaking of tsunami relief.
Bush, “President Discusses.”
Editorial, “Making Right Moves on Disaster Relief; After Slight Delay, U.S. Takes Lead in Aid Effort,” Rocky Mountain News, January 4, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Editorial, “Indonesia's short-sighted request,” St. Petersburg Times, January 15, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Editorial, “The Nature of Things; When America-Bashers Call US Stingy in International Aid, They Overlook Military Assistance and Private Donations,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
Melanie Markley and Michael Hedges, “Terror from the Ocean; U.S. will head coalition providing disaster relief,” The Houston Chronicle, December 30, 2004, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; Bob Deans, “Tsunami Relief Hits High Gear: U.S. Sends in Military to Assist,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 4, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
See also: Bryan Bender and Alan Wirzbicki, “Bush Pledges US to Lead International Assistance to Victims,” The Boston Globe, December 30, 2004, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; Editorial, “The Nature of Things,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; Editorial. “Making Right Moves on Disaster Relief,” Rocky Mountain News, January 4, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; Rafael D. Frankel, “US Soldiers Relish Their New Role: Lifesavers,” The Boston Globe, January 12, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; David C. Mason. “It Never Seems That We Do Enough,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 6, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093; Jim VandeHei, “Bush Pledges Big U.S. Role As Team Heads to Region,” The Washington Post, January 2, 2005, http://bert.lib.indiana.edu:2093.
What is significant about the editorial and opinion pages in newspapers throughout the country is not that they took a position on U.S. tsunami relief but the uniformity with which they praised U.S. international action as selfless and compassionate.
William J. Clinton, “President and Presidents Clinton, Bush Discuss Tsunami Relief Efforts.”
Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism, 4.
Johnson, Sorrows of Empire, 72.
Robert L. Ivie and Oscar Giner, “More Good, Less Evil: Contesting the Mythos of National Insecurity in the 2008 Presidential Primaries,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 12 (2009), 281.
Johnson, Sorrows of Empire, 72.
Godfrey Hodgson, The Myth of American Exceptionalism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 10.