Rhetorical Analysis of Conspiracy Theories - Term Paper Example

Writing 19February The Assassination John F. Kennedy was had a vision of running for a second term in 1964. Though he had not publicly announced his intention he had been going around the country in the fall of 1963 talking about improving education, peace and national security. On November 22, 1963, he visited Dallas Texas where he had a fruitful meeting with the people and had breakfast meeting with elected leaders of the State. At noon, the president motorcade was moving in the street at Dealey Plaza, and the president was waving to cheering crowds. Unfortunately as they were passing Texas School Book Depository gunfire reverberated form Dealey Plaza and the president was hit in the head and neck and succumbed to the injuries. Popper says that conspiracy theories are social phenomenon used mistakenly to explain events and even situations. Based on the event of November 22, 1963, many theories have emerged explaining who killed the President and why he was killed. The assassination has been explained by a number of conspiracy theories. For rhetorical analysis I will analyze three conspiracy theories that explain who and why John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The Truth Conspiracy Theory 1 One of these theories is that the Secret Service killed John Kennedy. According to the proponent of the theory Kennedy was felled by a shot from Secret Service agent not those that were fired from the sixth floor of Dealey Plaza. The Kennedy head wounds showed that the third bullet was not shot from Mannlicher rifle used to fire the first and the second shots. Donahue argued that because the left side rail of the vehicle carrying the president was full of secret servicethen the president was assassinated by people assigned to him. The bullet that shot the President in the head left a 6mm diameter wound at the entry point and produced 40 fragments in Kennedy’s brain. This was inconsistence with a 6.5 mm bullet fired from Dealey Plaza. Donahue reported that George Hickey shot the president mistakenly with an AR-15 rifle. The theory did not get notice and drew no attention to Donahue analysis. Conspiracy Theory 2 However, one of the main conspiracy theories states the Military and Industrial Complex. The people behind the assassination of the president did so to maintain their financial support from the government projects. At the time of the Kennedy’s assassination on November 22nd, 1963 the U.S government was funding the Vietnam regime after along war between the United States and the communist USSR over the control of the region’s economic ideology (An Introduction to the JFK Assassination). Therefore, many American business men had their companies involved in the construction of South Vietnam infrastructure. President Kennedy had signed the national Security Action Memorandum 263 authorizing the withdrawal of 1000 troops at the end of 1963. Therefore, this motive made the military elite and Industrial complex fear of losing lucrative opportunity and had the president killed. Conspiracy Theory 3 Moreover, scholars argue that the communist regime assassinated the present for his long standing against communism. The Cuban regime was unhappy with the way the Kennedys tackled the Cuban Missile Crisis. Therefore, it is clear he had enemies within and outside the government, an elite institution that was acting against their desires. The conspiracy argues that the institutional of elite groups work against the public interest and are trying to take resources aimed at benefiting the nation. However, conspiracies are not always true. Walter argues that ‘conspiracy theories, like religious beliefs, have the power to transfigure the believer, and hardwired apophenia (Walker 20). The work of military in carrying out foreign policy in Vietnam and Southern America positioned them in strategic positions, in government operations. Moreover, given that President Kennedy appointed businessmen among diplomat he unknowingly elevated his enemy to position of power. It is an evident that he was surrounded by his villains who were well connected to pursue an agenda different from which Kennedy was eager to fulfill. Conspiracy Theory 4 The U.S involvement in a Cold War with USSR might have caused the soviet regime to order for his killing. According to the Oswald conspiracy theory, the soviet hired him to gun down President Kennedy in Dallas. The theory claims that Lee Harvey was in the sixth floor where the fired from, and he did the shooting by himself. The Warren Commission reported that there was a photograph evidence of Oswald with the same rifle that killed the president. This is an Enemy Outside conspiracy theory because Oswald was accused of working for the Communist regime in either Soviet Union or Cuba. Oswald was accused as a lone gunman or working with other unidentified groups outside the country. The CIA uncovered that Oswald had met a Soviet ambassador in Mexico City. This showed that Oswald may have been involved in the killing because he met people who were perceived to be American enemy before the fateful day (Mary Ferrell Foundation). Harvey Oswald went to Mexico before the assassination in1963 to find a visa to travel to communist countries in Cuba and the Eastern Europe. When he failed in his mission, he went back to Dallas where after a month, and half the president is assassinated by gun licensed to Oswald (Mary Ferrell Foundation). Conspiracy Theory 1 Analysis Therefore, in analyzing this theory, one can argue that it is an Enemy Above as well as an Enemy Within because if the secret service shot the president then they were working for powerful individuals in government and acted against the will of the majority. However, the accident theory is disapproved because no witness testified against a secret service accident. The theory proposes that Kennedy was killed to take over the presidency. Conspiracy Theory 2 Analysis According to this theory the military did not want to lose the war and construction companies feared to lose their subsidized profits. Furthermore, capitalists did not want to lose their ideological influence in Southeast Asia. John F. Kennedy was killed by powerful people who controlling the economy and military generals. Therefore, this conspiracy theory is an Enemy Above conspiracy because a few powerful individuals wanted to gain at the expense of common good. As an Enemy Above conspiracy, the JFK assassination was carried out to silence his interest in serving the American people. The powerful elite group could not let the president take away their interest in Vietnam and the domestic economy. Conspiracy Theory 3 Analysis The elite generals controlled enormous funds in the armed forces and devoted all their energy in winning wars.They were, therefore, disappointed by the president handling of Missile crisis in Latin America and worked to his demise. The president had military generals as his Enemy Within and Enemy Above. Furthermore, the communist acted as an enemy without aimed at advancing communism by attacking proponent of capitalism. The Kennedy assassination conspiracy is also an Enemy Within because the conspirators are indistinguishable from the people working for Kennedy or against his government. It is hard to recognize the Generals, as well as, the businessmen behind the assassination. Moreover, the assailants are involved in questioning the causes of the assassination making it had to find the truth. At the time, Kennedy was shot at in Dallas he had a weak spinal cord and had a supportive gadget in his back. Expert argues that, were it, not for the gadget he was wearing he could have managed to avoid the second and third bullet that claimed his life. Therefore, expert raises the question whether the assailant knew of Kennedy’s health conditions. Conspiracy Theory 4 Analysis The Kennedy conspiracy an enemy above argues for an existence of an elite group with an aim of marginalizing the community. It is, therefore, an Enemy Within as well as an Enemy Above because people are brainwashed to believe of a secret organization behind the killing of JFK. Moreover, through propaganda the conspiracy theorist is able to penetrate the government while accusing other of plotting ill will to the president. Furthermore, an Enemy Within conspiracy aims to bring distrust among the government and its people. The accusation that powerful members within the government had hatched to exterminate JFK only serves to bring public apathy. Conspiracy theories are significant because they offer explanation where there are limited facts connecting to the actual happening of a tragedy. The assassination of JFK conspiracy theories has helped people to evaluate the different theories that might have caused his assassination. Comparison and similarities However, the Kennedy assassination differs in some degrees from other Enemy Above conspiracy theory because it lacks a spiritual leader or an overall head like in the Civil Right Movement. The Civil Rights Movement had its spiritual leaders in Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X (Soukup et al. 6). Nevertheless, it relates with government conspiracy in surveillance and political conspiracies that are used to justify war. The conspiracy theories are aimed to ensure that the public feels paranoid of an existence of a huge body of a powerful group working day and night to cause vague evil. Walker says ‘conspiracies have been a potent force across the political spectrum, from the colonial era to the present, in the establishment as well as at the extremes’ (Walker 119). The Enemy Above genre has worked to marginalize the public while pursuing an agenda of a few people. The assassination of President Kennedy conspiracy is likened to the control of the economy by the Bilderberg organization. The Bilderberg is a conspiracy theory of one powerful government aimed at ruling the world. Conspiracy theorist uses movies and film to narrate event that have raised doubt on the involvement of government or powerful organization. The conspiracy about the assassination of JFK is an example of a digital rhetoric. It offers suggestion, argument and fallacies surrounding the killing of the president (Soukup et al. 11). The theorists use every bit of intelligence from ballistic experts and medical and forensics analysis to make a claim of the presence of a planned conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists use the film industry because it has a vast audience in society and rein to hoodwink propaganda of existence of non-existence events. Walker in his book argues that ‘just as an animist treats natural forces as conscious spirits many conspiracists treat social forces as conscious cabals’ (Walker 89) Conclusion Benevolent conspiracy theories that explain momentous event like the emancipation of independencethe enemy above conspiracy shows the distrust of American government to its president and the people. The JFK assassination had a reservation to vengeance and conflict of interest among world leaders. Moreover, there was competition at the time between the communist and the capitalist country over influence of various parts of the world among then, Asia and South America. The JFK assassination is an example of an Enemy above and an enemy within conspiracy theory (Fetzer 1). The JFK assassination is similar to the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior because they were done to betray the course of the civil right movement and an aim to end the war in Vietnam. Similarly, the JFK assassination is blamed on government, but there have never been concrete evidence to show that the government was involved. Conspiracies have never provided concrete evidence to prove their case, and thus they are just conspiracies (Fetzer 1). Work Cited Walker, Jesse. The United States of paranoia: a conspiracy theory. New York: HarperCollins, 2013. Print An Introduction to the JFK Assassination. Who Killed President Kennedy? Web. 17 Feb. 2014. < http://22november1963.org.uk/>. Fetzer, J. Thinking About ‘Conspiracy Theories’ 9/11 and JFK. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. http://www.d.umn.edu/~jfetzer/fetzerexpandedx.pdf>. International Baccalaureate.John F. Kennedy: Assassination or Conspiracy. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. < http://www.ukings.ca/files/u22/Essay%20A.pdf>. Mary Ferrell Foundation. Oswald in Mexico City. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. < http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Oswald_in_Mexico_City>. Soukup, C. 9/11 Conspiracy Theories on the World Wide Web: Digital Rhetoric and Alternative Epistemology. Journal of Literacy and TechnologyVolume 9, Number 3: December 2008 Read More