Language:
English
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
Quarterly Journal of Speech
Angaben zur Quelle:
75,2 (1989) 129-151
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Bitburg (Germany)
Abstract:
Examines the rhetoric used by Reagan to justify his visit to the cemetery at Bitburg, West Germany (May 1985), showing that he failed to satisfy his Jewish opponents because of their mutually irreconcilable perspectives. Reagan proceeded from a "scientific" or empirical perspective, which accorded with the utilitarian purposes of American poliitcs, whereas his opponents' "dramatic" perspective sought to establish values and ideals. This conflict was expressed in three dimensions: time, space, and judgment. States that Reagan has a disregard for history, perhaps linked to his Hollywood origins. Jewish groups felt that he wished to fix and limit the past through "memorialization, " to destroy its impact on the present. Reagan denied the concept of collective guilt or the existence of a right to judge Nazis. When criticized, he redefined the term "victim, " classing the young German conscripts with concentration camp inmates as "victims of Hitler, " a comparison which outraged his opponents.
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