Media and the Politics of Failure: Great Powers, Communication Strategies, and Military Defeats (The Palgrave Macmillan Series in Internatioal Political Communication)

Great powers are not supposed to lose wars, so how do leaders explain military defeat when it happens? Media and the Politics of Failure analyzes the American experience in Vietnam and the Soviet experience in Afghanistan to draw larger conclusions about how and why political leaders explain the end of military involvement. In spite of differences in political and media systems, there are remarkable similarities between American and Soviet leaders' communication strategies. Great power identity and domestic politics shape an explanation of withdrawal that emphasizes success and invokes prestige. The factors that shape the construction of the story did not disappear with the end of the Cold War, thus this work offers important insights for current American and Russian military efforts. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 8 1 Political Communication and Policy Legitimacy: Explaining Failure......Page 10 2 War Waging and Reassessment: Vietnam......Page 34 3 Withdrawal and Aftermath: Vietnam......Page 58 4 War Waging and Reassessment: Afghanistan......Page 88 5 Withdrawal and Aftermath: Afghanistan......Page 112 6 Conclusions and a Post–Cold War Assessment......Page 132 Appendix......Page 150 Notes......Page 152 Sources Consulted and Selected Bibliography......Page 182 B......Page 192 F......Page 193 I......Page 194 M......Page 195 P......Page 196 T......Page 197 V......Page 198 Z......Page 199 Roselle analyzes how political leaders of powerful states use media to explain military defeats. The cases of the United States in Vietnam and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan highlight the role of great power identity, domestic politics, and media structure.