The rhetoric of nukespeak

Abstract

Nukespeak is the use of metaphor, euphemism, technical jargon and acronyms to portray nuclear concepts in a “neutral”; or positive way. This essay identifies two nukespeak strategies, domestication and bureaucratization. Nukespeak functions as a potentially dangerous “terministic screen”; for both speakers and audience: The moral and practical implications of nuclear war are ignored or underestimated by nukespeak users, and nuclear policy issues are rendered trivial or less accessible to the general public. Two cases of nukespeak strategy by President Ronald Reagan are examined as illustrations of the implications of nukespeak for the audience: the term “CORRTEX”; as an instance of bureaucratization and the use of domesticated metaphors to describe the purpose of the “Strategic Defense Initiative.”