Democracy the Destroyer of Worlds: Carter’s Presidential Directive-59, Habermas, and the Legitimation of Nuclear Secrecy

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/nv9353006

Abstract

On July 25, 1980 President Jimmy Carter signed Presidential Directive 59 (hereafter PD-59). PD-59 was an attempt to operationalize the concept of limited nuclear options into United States nuclear weapons policy. This nuclear policy was unique in that the story of its existence was broken by the press and the Carter Administration lost control of the representations of PD-59. In this study I analyze the events leading up to the creation of PD-59 and its subsequent debate in newspapers as well as secret policy meetings using Habermas’s theory of deliberative politics from a critical rhetorical perspective. This analysis unpacks the complex legitimizing process that functions to legitimize policy that is created outside of the public eye.

Creator