Reexamines the American National Conference of Catholic Bishops' 1983 Pastoral Letter on War and Peace. Finds that the pastoral letter functioned rhetorically not to foster but to manage dissent, diffusing a radical Catholic challenge to American defense policy and reclaiming the bishops' authority to define Church teachings on war and peace. (SR)

Discusses the post-presidential writings of Richard Nixon. Finds an overarching concern for the "will," which permitted Nixon to transform the standards of higher moral principle into the politics of expediency. Views Nixon's writings as a symptom of the ailing health of public morality in liberal society. (SR)

Analyzes President Reagan's foreign policy address of October 27, 1983, on events in Lebanon and Grenada, by taking a flexible approach to Kenneth Burke's "pentad"--preserving the inherent ambiguity of act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose. Concludes that the speech reveals a formulation of American character incompatible with a…