Rhetorical Counterinsurgency: The FBI and the American Indian Movement

Casey R. Kelly

doi:10.1080/15362426.2007.10557283

Rhetorical Counterinsurgency: The FBI and the American Indian Movement

Casey R. Kelly

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

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

Original language	American English
Journal	Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/15362426.2007.10557283
State	Published - Jan 1 2007

Keywords

American Indians
FBI
rhetoric

Disciplines

Communication

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Cite this

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Rhetorical Counterinsurgency: The FBI and the American Indian Movement

Abstract

Keywords

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