Cold War Rhetoric

When World War II “ended in a thunderclap,” observed Joseph H. Rush of the Association of Oak Ridge Scientists in 1947, the war had made science “politically interesting” and had interested scientists in politics. These interests manifested themselves in the rhetoric of the cold war that defined much of the public discourse for the next four decades. The cold war's inception is marked variously with such events as the August 6, 1945, explosion of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan; Japan's surrender shortly thereafter; articulation of the Truman Doctrine in the president's March 1947 address to the U.S. Congress; assistance for Greece and Turkey; and publication the same year of George F. Kennan's anonymous memo in Foreign Affairs advocating that the U.S. [Page 154]adopt a policy of containment vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. That multiple moments, or some combination of them, might be said to account for the origins of the cold war testifies to rhetoric's significance in U.S. foreign policy. For although no one can dispute the materiality of nuclear weapons, an act of surrender, the provision of assistance to allies, and so on, imparting meaning to such events is a function of rhetoric.

Rhetoric originated as a practical art of persuasion following the overthrow of tyranny at Syracuse, Sicily, in the sixth century BCE. Citizens found themselves in a complicated situation. Free to make their own decisions, they were uncertain about how to proceed. In ensuing decades, rhetoric emerged and matured as an essential means for deliberating public policy and making laws in legislative bodies, settling disputes over the appropriateness of the laws in courtrooms, and both celebrating and censuring events, leaders, and community values on ceremonial occasions. Speakers in these arenas sought to influence audiences through some combination of their own expertise on subjects (ethos), their skill in assessing and appealing to audience emotions (pathos), and the construction of compelling messages grounded in sound logic and strong evidence (logos). From these roots evolved the foundation of a rhetorical tradition in which speakers (and, later, writers) prepared messages delivered through appropriate channels to influence audiences in response to situ-ational or contextual dynamics.

Two-and-a-half millennia later, rhetoric continues to include the performance and analysis of persuasive discourse, but its meanings and uses have also broadened markedly. Thus, since scholarship of cold war rhetoric began in the last quarter of the 20th century, research has included attention to advocates' modes of argument, language choices, appeals to ideology, use of narrative and myth, and skill in public presentation, among other concerns. But beyond such traditional assessments of public policy deliberations, scholars have also examined the rhetorical dimensions of film, popular culture, covert as well as overt acts, pamphlets, and social movements; rhetoric's role in the construction of social reality; and many other topics. Despite increasing diversity in explorations of cold war rhetoric, however, one theme relevant to an encyclopedia of science and technology recurs: Science became increasingly central to political speech, and scientists became increasingly prominent players in political life. Attention to the emergence of the scientists' movement in the 1940s and to presidents who made use of science in their political rhetoric illustrates these points.

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