This study examines three speeches delivered by U.S. presidents during times of international crises, Woodrow Wilson\u27s speech on April 2, 1917, George H. W. Bush\u27s speech delivered on January 16, 1991, and the speech by George W. Bush delivered on September 20, 2001. Elements of epideictic, deliberative and forensic strategies were applied to the discourse to determine whether the speeches conformed to expectations for presidential international crisis rhetoric. This thesis extends a study completed in 1989 in which Bonnie J. Dow argued that only epideictic and deliberative strategies appear in international crisis rhetoric. In contrast, this study found that, in order for the discourse to be effective, a combination of epideictic, deliberative and forensic strategies must be present in international crisis rhetoric
