Euphemism
Euphemism is a technique that rewards certain things to make the unpleasant reality sound a bit better and palatable. The MX missile, which was renamed as the Peacekeeper in 1986, is a clear example of euphemism because it is dubbed the “Peacekeeper”, which brings a positive connotation to the dangerous missile itself. In the 1980s, US officials strongly feared that the Soviet Union would strike with a nuclear missile to demolish the missiles of the United States, so they built this Peacekeeper as a measure of defense. Therefore, the America's goal was not to "keep peace" like what the name suggests, but to fight back when Soviet attacks. Also, in the video shown above, the speaker says that the Peacekeeper has a warhead that will "deliver up to 10 Mark 21 independently targeted reentry vehicles". Usage of the word “deliver” rather than words like ravage, bomb and explode, can also be an example of euphemism because the speaker is using gentler words to pacify the audience.
image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Peacekeeper_missile.jpg
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHlYc_MzvLk
video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHlYc_MzvLk