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= Political Deception = Political deception is a topic that concerns the deceptive techniques and strategies utilized in politics. Deception, is a communication-based topic that has several attributed definitions and interpretations from scholars around the world. In a broad sense, deception can be defined as the intentional act of altering one's perception. Lying is also considered a form of deception, but not all deception is considered lying. Political deception is a construct that contains numerous conceptual elements relevant throughout history.

A few examples of these elements is the usage of lying by omission and lying by commission from politicians, speech and language distortion, and unfulfilled promises.

Lying by omission is the act of purposefully distorting or leaving out significant information relevant to what is being said, in order to avoid some form of consequence. Such misleading lies often cause individuals to arrive at a wrong conclusion. In terms of politics, lying by omission is utilized when individuals are confronted with conflicting information, and must use a tactic as such to uphold one's reputation in the political sphere and to maintain influential relationships. Lying by commission is when someone blatantly and purposefully lies to someone. Such lies are utilized when any variation of the truth could be detrimental.

Speech and language distortion are a concept central to the construct of political deception. There are numerous occurrences of linguistic distortion in politics, but two of the most common forms utilized are euphemisms and equivocation. Euphemisms are statements, phrases, or words which are generally nonconflicting substitutes for harsh, negative, or offensive claims. An example of a popular euphemism enacted by a president, is when the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, classified the war in the Middle East as an "effort" to fight off ISIS. Providing the word "effort," made the war appear less detrimental to American livelihood than the actual realities and consequences associated with the war in the Afghanistan and Iraq. As euphemisms are characterized by the time-period in which they exist, politicians employ such a tactic to derail political opponent's motives and to characterize one's own motives as being aimed to bettering the country. Notably, euphemisms are also extremely popular in political debates. Equivocation is considered to be an informal fallacy stemming from the usage of ambiguous language, that has multiple meanings, and is often exploited to mislead. An example of a well-known equivocation fallacy perpetuated by a president, is when 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, in 2006 equivocated that the United States does not torture suspected terrorist. While Bush's statement was truthful, he neglected to mention the United States practice of waterboarding and "other techniques" not specified under what constitutes torture.

Politician's also exercise deception through the employment of unfulfilled promises. Relevant occurrences of such unkept promises are displayed throughout the political spectrum when politicians make election promises on the campaign trail. Campaign promises are typically developed in order to win an election, thus politicians exaggerate the potentiality of such promises to be fulfilled. A popular example of broken election promises, is when the 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush, gave his "Read my lips: no new taxes" speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention. During his acceptance speech, Bush promised not to raise taxes, contrarily only two years after, Bush agreed to increase existing taxes.

Types
There are several types of political deception embodied and represented by, but not limited to military deception, political-media deception, and presidential deception.

Military deception
Military deception is when a military unit misleads an opponent in order to gain advantage over the adversary and to obtain some goal or power. Positive and negative consequences can result from the use of deception in the military. Most notably, military deception has been implemented throughout wars. The development and employment of deception in military force has been understood to be a crucial effort and skill needed to accomplish a mission, win a battle, or reach an underlying goal. An example of military deception is represented below:

The Vietnam war
The Vietnam War lasted over the course of twenty years, lasting from 1955 until 1975. Historically, the Vietnam War is known to be one of the most divisive and controversial wars in the history of the United States of America. Originally, the war took place between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, as North Vietnam was supported by communist allies and South Vietnam was supported by anti-communist allies. Once the United States joined the war, to aid South Vietnam, citizens across the nation began to question why the United States had implemented itself into the conflict. With no clear answer emerging, politicians and presidents alike relied on deception in attempt to uphold the sanctity of the nation. While foreign aids warned the United States that increased military opposition would have no impact on the decimation of communist led North Vietnam, presidents such as John F. Kennedy, ignored that there was zero perceived military solution available. Any occurrence of suspected interference or retaliation from the Northern Vietnamese, whether confirmed or not, the United States sought retaliation, thus provoking the continuous controversial war. A primary example of such deception in the Vietnam war is represented by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that took place under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States.

Political-media deception
Media deception as it relates to politics is extremely prevalent with the continuous development of technology, artificial intelligence, and social media outlets. In broad terms, political-media deception is the misleading or fabrication of news regarding political topics. Media deception can be attributed to a number of ideals or characteristics within the realm of politics. For instance, deception in political media can be utilized to attack or undermine a news source, a candidate, a political party, an organization, and so on. Sometimes, deceptive is referred to as fake news, which is news meant to mislead. Political-media deceptive techniques can also be employed to aid in strategically advancing a politician's career. One primary example of this is when John F. Kennedy faced, at the time, Republican Vice President Richard Nixon, in 1960 for the first televised debate. While Kennedy did not actively display deception, the new televised debate style used, caused citizens to perceive Kennedy as being the winner from sheer appearance. So, the technology implemented in the time frame, actively persuaded or misled United States citizens, into believing that a candidate won by the way the debate was experienced.

Presidential deception
In terms of political deception as related to presidents, it can be assumed that nearly if not all presidents have lied or enacted deception, for some benefit or another. Like military deception, presidential deception can be categorized as justified or unjustified, depending on the benefit to the nation. A few examples of presidential deception are listed below:


 * 1) President Bill Clinton's usage of unique interpretations to signify that he did not have a "sexual relationship" with Monica Lewinsky.
 * 2) President John F. Kennedy lied about having Addison's disease to protect his public image.
 * 3) President Dwight D. Eisenhower denied that America was sending U-2 spy planes over the Soviet Union in 1960.
 * 4) President Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate scandal.
 * 5) President George W. Bush, and his administrations lies regarding involvement in Iraq and aspersions regarding Weapons of mass destruction.
 * 6) President Donald J. Trump made claims that he had won the 2020 election prior to an official election decision.