Agata Zysiak, Wiktor Marzec: The Noam Chomsky - William Buckley 1969 debate asa case of military involvement discussion in the American public discourse

The analysis of 1969 Buckley-Chomsky debate about the Vietnam War is the main issue in this article. Seems it could be taken as an example and illustration of broader features of American public sphere. The conversational analysis account based transcription was made and structural description conducted. Due to this a detailed description of the conversation could by made and structural features of the war debate extracted. A theoretical contribution of J. Alexander's and P. Smith's Cultural Sociology is here significant. The primary feature is fundamental discursive division between self ascribed democratic values of civilised society, and the excluded adversary. Such dichotomization is typical for almost all political and civil discourses, and the main controversy is how to distribute the positions in the ready-made binary structure. The representing of the democratic values is a main rhetoric of both sides. Buckley stands for universal values and proliferation of democracy whereas Chomsky argues for freedom and self-determination of nations. A surprising durability of this founding structure appears, and almost every military engagement argument could be retranscribed this way.