Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Chairmen Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff: Monitoring The Evolution Of An Agency Through Rhetorical Snapshots Of Speeches By Generals Omar N. Bradley, Earle G. Wheeler, George S. Brown And Colin L. Powell, John Robert Foster

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

There is a need to examine the long term rhetorical strategies of military spokesmen within a democratic state characterized by civilian hegemony. This study uses Kenneth Burke's discussion of cluster analysis to discover the various recurring themes from Chairman to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This form of analysis enabled the researcher to document periodic variances or shifts in emphasis among the four Chairmen whose speeches will be examined. The investigation involved two speeches representative of each of these four distinct periods of the discourse of Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one given to a civilian …