Date of Award
3-29-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
School of Communication
First Advisor
Joseph Zompetti
Abstract
In 2001, the United States of America was the target of a vicious terrorist attack. In 2003, President George W. Bush announced that Americans were the mighty heroes responsible for capturing Saddam Hussein and bringing him to justice, even though Hussein was not the terrorist responsible for 9/11. Eight years later, President Barack Obama broke the news that Americans succeeded in assassinating Osama bin Laden, the true villain who orchestrated 9/11. One administration later, President Donald Trump proclaimed Americans had intervened to protect the world by eliminating another terrorist threat, Qasem Soleimani. I analyze these three presidential addresses as episodes in an overarching narrative of American exceptionalism, exemplarism, interventionism, and paternalism. In so doing, this project may illuminate a recurring pattern of eliminating terrorist threats as part of a campaign strategy in the last year of these leaders’ first terms in the White House, and start of their re-election campaigns.
KEYWORDS: president; terrorism; terrorist; capture; assassination; announcement; speech; rhetoric; George W. Bush; Barack Obama; Donald J. Trump; Saddam Hussein; Osama bin Laden; Qasem Soleimani; exceptionalism; exemplarism; interventionism; presidential paternalism
Recommended Citation
Freeman, Maura, "Exceptional Paternal American Heroes Triumph over Big Bad Terrorists ( Again ): the Storied Episodes of Three Presidential Addresses Announcing the Elimination of another Middle Eastern Terrorist Threat" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 1368.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/1368
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2021.20210719070603175634.77
Page Count
149
Comments
Imported from Freeman_ilstu_0092N_11919.pdf