In this study of the discourse involved in martial deliberations,
Ronald H. Carpenter examines the rhetoric employed by naval and
military commanders as they recommend specific tactics and
strategies to peers as well as presidents. Drawing on ideas of
rhetorical thinking from Aristotle to Kenneth Burke, Carpenter
identifies two concepts of particular importance to the military
decision-making process: prudence and the representative anecdote.
Carpenter suggests that attention to these two concepts enables an
understanding of how military commanders settle on a course of
action and persuade others to support them. Carpenter turns for
illustration and insight to key case studies in which military
commanders centered their rhetoric on representative anecdotes
involving earlier campaigns. He shows Douglas MacArthur persuading
the Joint Chiefs of Staff to act on his plan for the Inchon attack;
Maxwell Taylor reacting to Robert Kennedy's invocation of Pearl
Harbor in deliberations during the Cuban Missile Crisis; Japanese
and American commanders deliberating during the battles of Pearl
Harbor and Midway; and Orde Wingate, Bull Halsey, and MacArthur
debating strategy in the Pacific. In all such deliberations the
primary focus is the prudent course. Carpenter suggests that the
trend in contemporary society from authoritarianism toward
management by persuasion, explanation, and expertise similarly
permeates the military. He contends that rhetorical proficiency in
martial deliberations can be as important for a military leader as
tactical and strategic expertise.
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