Consummatory versus justificatory crisis rhetoric

The question posed in this study is: Are there differences in rhetorical strategy and tactic between discourse initially constituting the sole response of our government to states of emergency and discourse accompanying, justifying, and rationalizing specific military moves undertaken in response to crises? To provide a partial answer to this question, five presidential messages were analyzed and placed into two categories: consummatory rhetoric‐where presidential discourse initially constituted the only official reply made by the American government; and justificatory rhetoric‐where presidential discourse was part of a larger, military retaliation taken by the government. Differences and similarities between these two kinds of talk are detailed, and implications for crisis rhetoric are presented.