John F. Kennedy and the Green Berets: The rhetorical use of the hero myth

Abstract

President Kennedy perceived a threat to American national security in Communist sponsorship of “wars of national liberation” in developing nations. He responded with a policy of counter‐insurgency, which was to be implemented primarily by the U. S. Army's Special Forces, known as the Green Berets. In order to gain public and Congressional support, pacify the political right wing, and bolster his own flagging public image, Kennedy portrayed the Special Forces as contemporary reincarnations of the mythic frontier hero. His efforts were, in the short run, successful, but they paved the way for later escalation of the war by Lyndon Johnson.