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ence, a writer may have sound reasons for not calling a spade a spade. There is nothing wrong with sensitivity. There is much that is right in seeking never unintentionally to offend anyone.
The most objectionable euphemisms are those that wrap plain truths in army fatigues, the better to camouflage their impact. Rawson tells the story of Col. David H. E. Opter, who served as air attache at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1973. He complained one day to newsmen: “You always write it’s bombing, bombing, bombing! It’s not bombing. It’s air support.”
In the same fashion, the accidental killing of our own soldiers becomes “friendly fire” or “incontinent ordnance.” The CIA at one time had no intention of murdering Fidel Castro; the idea was to dispose of him instead. In 1977 a racial riot broke out in Montreal, but the police chief denied it:
“It wasn’t a riot at all. It was a melee. No, melee isn’t right either. What happened here was an aberration of the social system.”
My impression is that in some areas euphemistic speech is on the decline. I count that a good thing. When I broke into newspapering as a cub reporter in 1941, all kinds of
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