Using carefully measured words, he declared to the nation that “in the face of the trials that again are mounting toward it, it should know that I am ready to assume the powers of the republic”. But there was no how or when. As Prime Minister Macmillan noted in his journal, it was “an equivocal statement, but one which has terrified the French politicians. It is cast in his usual scornful but enigmatic language.”

SEED: This historical example of equivocal rhetoric as a political weapon could inspire an essay on strategic ambiguity in leadership communication.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 885