"Det som nu pågår i Vietnam är en form av tortyr" : En studie om Olof Palmes retorik under Vietnamkriget 1965-1972

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to analyze three of Olof Palme’s speeches during the Vietnam War. Olof Palme was leader of the Swedish Social democrats 1969-1986 and Prime minister 1969-1976; and 1982 until his death 1986. The speeches are from the years 1965-1972 when the Vietnam War was a central theme throughout the world, including in Sweden. The aim is to understand how Olof Palme’s speeches and rhetoric changed during this time period and which mode of persuasion (ethos, pathos and logos) that dominates in the speeches. Furthermore, the essay analyzes media reactions to Olof Palme’s speeches, with a special focus on the newspapers in Aftonbladet and Expressen. The methods used for processing the source material are rhetorical analysis and qualitative content analysis.  The results of the study show that Palme’s rhetoric develops over the time period 1965-1972. In the speeches he makes various arguments to convey his message. The results also show that pathos dominates in all three speeches. The media responses reflect the political ideology of the studied newspapers. Aftonbladet is generally more empathetic to Palme’s speeches while Expressen is more critical and disagrees with him in some parts of the speeches. The media reactions reflect the political climate of the time when Palme presented his speeches.