The Rhetoric of Prophetic Dualism: Crisis, American Exceptionalism, and Religious Nationalism in Truman’s St. Patrick’s Day Addresses, March 17, 1948

Abstract This article argues that President Harry Truman employed two St. Patrick’s Day speeches in March 1948 to advance a new role for the United States in global relations. Through an early form of prophetic dualism that evoked crisis, identified and condemned Soviet transgressions, and invoked realism, he advanced an argument that reinforced American exceptionalism, reinvigorated religious nationalism, heightened his authority, and discouraged debate. His early Cold War rhetorical strategies assisted in bolstering his foreign policy credentials by reassuring Western Europe that the United States would stand against the Communist threat while simultaneously assisting him in the 1948 presidential campaign by linking Henry Wallace to communism.