Rhetorical Counterinsurgency: The FBI and the American Indian Movement

Casey Ryan Kelly Twin Cities Orthopedics

Abstract

This essay unfolds in three sections. First, I develop a theory ofrhetorical counterinsurgency and explain its refinement within theFBI as a method of threat control and management. Second, I situate rhetorical counterinsurgency within a series of migrating culturalcontexts, including the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and culturalstereotypes of American Indians. These contexts constrained theavailable interpretations of Indian, as well as non-Indian radicalism andjustified the application of techniques of counterinsurgency. Finally,I offer a rhetorical analysis of both the FBI’s use of communicativetactics as a method of counterinsurgency as well as the content of theirrhetorical constructions of AIM. I investigate two disarming topoi ofsavagery: AIM as communist surrogate and American Viet Cong.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2007-01-01
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2007.10557283
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Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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