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Uniform Intelligence: The United States Military Liaison Mission And The Cold War 1947-1990, Frank Christopher Ofner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers, ending the war in Europe. As such, the Western Allies of Britain, France, and the United States came into direct contact with the Soviet forces in Germany, which they divided into four zones of occupation. With the potential of an armed conflict over Germany, the Western Allies and the Soviets agreed to use military liaison missions to help foster communication in Germany. The British and French maintained their units: British Commanders in Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS) and La Mission Militaire Francaise de Liaison (FMLM …

The Berlin Airlift And Its Humanitarian And The Pr Aspect, Madalyn Stead

2024 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

The Berlin Airlift, or die Berliner Luftbrücke, was one of the most dramatic events of the Cold War. While the Cold War lasted forty-five years, from 1947 to 1991, the Berlin Airlift took place at the very beginning, from 1948-1949. It was a great humanitarian effort, and is respected as one of the United States’ “finest hours,” as author Andrei Cherney titled it. It was presented as such through media, the news, and even pop culture. Curating it to look good was a carefully done job, but that should not always take away from the people who are involved in …

Cold War Fears And Algerian Independence: American Public Opinion On An Independent Algeria, 1954-1962, Shayla Taylor

2024 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

The Algerian War of Independence was a struggle by the Algerians for autonomy from their long-time colonizer and ally of the United States, France. While the independence movement is said to have started during the First World War, the war did not break out until late in 1954.1 The conflict came not even a decade after World War II, in the thick of the Cold War in which the Soviet Union and the United States competed on an international stage, and in an era in which many groups of people within Western powers held mixed feelings about decolonization. Maintaining order …

Günter Bischof And Peter Ruggenthaler, Österreich Und Der Kalte Krieg: Ein Balanceakt Zwischen Ost Und West (Graz/Wien: Leykam, 2022), Matthew P. Berg

2024 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

The Road To Armageddon: American Culture And Politics During The Late Cold War, 1970-1991, David Lee Denham Iii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Bible prophecy has long engaged the American mind. By the late Cold War, Biblical prophecy increasingly shaped the political beliefs of millions of Americans within the evangelical community. The group most impacted were dispensationalist Christians who interpreted the Atomic Age through the lens of end-time prophecies. Dating as far back as the seventeenth-century, American colonists living on the frontier of the British empire in North America embraced millennialism and, at times, interpreted current events through the lens of Bible prophecy while anticipating the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Battle of Armageddon. Through the centuries, Bible prophecy became a …

Bigger Is Better? Re-Evaluating Nato Enlargement In The Post-Cold War Period, Matthew Mccracken

Senior Honors Theses

Since the end of the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance has grown substantially from its pre-1990 boundary between the two Germanys to encompass 15 new members with its border pressing eastward toward the former Soviet states and up to Russia proper. At the same time, East-West relations have sunk from a high point in the 1990s to a new low unseen since the Cold War culminating in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Top-ranking officials on both sides of the Atlantic cautioned successive U.S. administrations against heedlessly seeking to admit new members into NATO for fear that it …

American Policy And Actions Surrounding The Baghdad Pact, 1955-1959, Caitlin Curtis

Masters Theses

The Middle East would come closest to collective security with the West in 1955 when Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Great Britain agreed to create the Baghdad Pact, and although the United States never officially joined, American policymakers provided resources and strategic conditions in order to take a very active role in the pact’s development. The Baghdad Pact is not a well-known organization, but this work argues that it was not a complete failure due to the positive civil advancements that took place. It is evident that, while limited, the U.S. role in the Baghdad Pact still provided member nations …

British Neo-Colonialism In Malaya And Singapore, And U.S. Empire In The Pacific, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay places the Vietnam War upon the larger canvas of Southeast and East Asian history by studying the long shadow that Britain’s Empire cast over U.S. entanglements across the region. It shows how British officials in Malaya and Singapore directly contributed to the expansion of US involvement in post-1945 Southeast Asia, as well as the overall pro-US trajectory of the region well before the Americanization of the Vietnam conflict.

Cold War Economic Ideology And Us Aid To Taiwan, 1950-1965, Wayne Robert Hugar

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project examines the puzzle of the ideological contradiction for why the United States justified giving large amounts of economic aid intended to develop capitalism and private sector free enterprise for the authoritarian Republic of China (ROC) government’s socialist style public sector economy on the island of Taiwan during the cold war period 1950-1965. The $1.4 billion in US foreign economic aid to the Chinese Nationalist led ROC government in Taiwan during this 15-year period was a seemingly disproportionate amount compared to its small size and type of authoritarian regime compared to other aid recipients. This project appraises the extent …

Kansas And The Cold War, Landry Brewer

Faculty Articles & Research

Because of its part in the nation's nuclear arsenal, in a movie depicting nuclear war, and in providing an American President, Kansas's Cold War rol was among the nations most important.

Putting The ‘D’ Into The Oecd – The Dac In The Cold War Years, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter charts the DAC’s Cold War history. During this period the DAC established much of the institutional and intellectual scaffolding of international development cooperation. Moreover, participation in the DAC also orchestrated a quiet revolution in the identities of its members, forging them into an imagined community of donors in which the supply of development assistance came to be seen as a routine function of modern industrialised states. Although the Cold War provided the overarching backdrop, the chapter also teases out some of the other key features of the landscape inhabited by the DAC and how they constrained and enabled …

The World’S Largest Airline: How Aeroflot Learned To Stop Worrying And Became A Corporation, Steven E. Harris

History and American Studies

Similar to sex, the Soviet Union did not have corporations. The famous utterance from the Gorbachev era about a sexless Soviet existence suggests how we might approach what happened to the corporation in Soviet history. Like explicit sex in Soviet culture, the workers’ state formally eradicated the dreaded incorporated bodies of capitalism and gave them no quarter in subsequent ideological battles. But just like sex, the behaviors and practices of corporations kept cropping up in the oddest places to help sustain the Soviet economy, while the West remained a source of inspiration for new ways to do it. To examine …

Sovereignty, Statehood, And Subjugation: Native Hawaiian And Japanese American Discourse Over Hawaiian Statehood, Nicole Saito

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Although discourse over Hawaiian statehood has increasingly been described by scholars as a racial conflict between Japanese Americans and Native Hawaiians, there existed a broad spectrum of interactions between the two groups. Both communities were forced to confront the prejudices they had against each other while recognizing their shared experiences with discrimination, creating a paradoxical political culture of competition and solidarity up until the conclusion of World War Two. From 1946 to 1950, however, the country’s collective understanding of Japanese American citizenship began to shift with recognition of the community’s military service record and an increased proportion of veterans elected …

The 1950s: The Ironies Of American Power, Andrew Finstuen

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the 1950s, Reinhold Niebuhr advanced a theology of history rooted in his theology of the Cross. From that vantage point, he challenged conventional, dualistic interpretations of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and America’s post-Second World War economic and technological prominence. While he favoured democracy over communism, African American rights over segregation, and abundance over scarcity, he rejected what he thought of as the human pretension to simplify such complex historical phenomena by appeals to American goodness. Instead Niebuhr saw the logic of the Cross as the surest route for navigating the confusion and ironies of history while …

Review Of J.W. Mohnhaupt, The Zookeepers' War, Carol A. Leibiger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Douglas Macarthur's Nation-Building: The Reconstruction Of Japan, Carson Nathaniel Newman

Masters Theses

At the end of World War II, Japan was militarily and economically devastated; Hiroshima and Nagasaki were radiated ruins; and the people were on the brink of starvation. Japan’s situation in 1945 looked very bleak as its people slowly began to rebuild their lives and move past years of bloody war. Transforming Japan meant replacing a military state focused on expansion with a parliamentary democracy focused on economic prosperity through innovation, industry, and peace. The American occupation lasted eight years and by the 1960s the Japanese economy was well on its ways to becoming the third largest in the world. …

Sport Under The Iron Curtain: Alliance, Defection, And Competition During The Cold War, Samuel A. Sheldon

Student Publications

The crossroads at which Sports and Politics connect is the Summer Olympics. This is most evident is during the Olympics of the Cold War. Typically, sports history of the Cold War covers the clash between the United States and the Soviet Union. But examined further, Sports Politics in the Cold War was experienced by the other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Hungary’s Golden Team in Helsinki 1952, Bulgaria’s wrestlers in Rome 1960, East Germany’s success through drug use at Munich 1972, and Poland’s Pole Vaulters in Moscow 1980. Each case exemplifies the complex nature of sports politics, showing the connection …

The Bonus March And The Cold War, Aidan Crosby

Summer Research

In 1932, veterans marched to the capitol to try force congress to pay their bonuses early. In 1948, this was reinterpreted as an attempted communist revolution. This is due to the way that the Second Red Scare shifted the acceptable range of political thought to an extreme that the idea of anti-capitalist/anti-US dissent that was not manufactured by the Soviet Union was impossible.

Explaining America's Proxy War In Afghanistan: U.S. Relations With Pakistan And Saudi Arabia 1979–1989, Adelaide Petrov-Yoo

History

From 1979 to 1989, an international coalition led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan sent aid to Afghan guerillas known as the mujahideen. This thesis investigates the interests served by this aid by identifying key decision makers and identifying what they hoped to achieve by participating in the aid pipeline. In the United States, President Carter escalated the aid program in response to waxing Soviet influence and waning US influence in the region. President Reagan’s foreign policy approach, fighting the Cold War in other countries through proxies labeled “freedom fighters”, encouraged members of Congress and the Executive branch …

Quiet River, Heavy Waters: Un-Silencing Narratives Of Social-Environmental Inequalities In The Cradle Of Soviet Plutonium, Rosibel Roman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In December 1948, the Soviet Union’s first plutonium production facility, Mayak Production Association (PO Mayak), began operation in the Southern Urals region of Russia, at the western edges of Siberia, near the restricted city of Chelyabinsk-40, known in the present day as Ozyorsk. Since then, rural communities located downstream from PO Mayak have experienced health, economic, ecological and social impacts of contamination from high-level radioactive wastes released by the facility into the Techa River and its surrounding ecosystem. My research, drawing from archival research conducted in Russia and the United States, as well as secondary sources in English and Russian, …

Us And The Cold War In Latin America, Thomas Field

Publications

The Cold War in Latin America had marked consequences for the region’s political and economic evolution. From the origins of US fears of Latin American Communism in the early 20th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, regional actors played central roles in the drama. Seeking to maximize economic benefit while maintaining independence with regard to foreign policy, Latin Americans employed an eclectic combination of liberal and anti-imperialist discourses, balancing frequent calls for anti-Communist hemispheric unity with periodic diplomatic entreaties to the Soviet bloc and the nonaligned Third World. Meanwhile, US Cold War policies toward …

The Misunderstood Origins Of The Cold War, Jennifer Melton

Spring Presentation of Undergraduate Research

The origins of the Cold War stemmed from the position of competition the United States and the Soviet Union were forced into after World War II ended which created the void of communication between the two superpowers. Without the excuse of alliance that World War II provided the two countries moved into a period of a more pronounced ideological conflict. The reason for this was because ideologically they were at direct odds with one another. The difference in ideology and politics of both countries forced further separation and unwillingness to work together to resolve any issues. This difference in ideology …

A Roundtable For Victoria M. Grieve, Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood In The 1950s, Thomas Field Jr., Julia L. Mickenberg, Lori Clune, Mary Brennan, Donna Alvah, Victoria M. Grieve

Publications

Dr. Thomas Field introduces a roundtable discussion of Victoria M. Grieve's Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood in the 1950s, providing a synopsis of reviewer critiques before the reviewers expand on their views and the author responds.

Imagining Revolutionary Feminism: Communist Asia And The Women Of The Black Panther Party, Benjamin Young

Research & Publications

Using newspapers, autobiographies, and interviews, this article examines the ways in which women of the Black Panther Party imagined the women of Vietnam, China, and North Korea as radical archetypes during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using Judy Wu’s theory of “radical orientalism” in conversation with Ashley Farmer’s concept of the “gendered imaginary,” I argue that the Panther women imagined the women of “the East” as pioneers in world revolution and women’s liberation in order to protest against gendered injustices within the Party and broader U.S. society. This article also investigates the realities on the ground for the women …

Jackson, Carlton Luther, 1933-2014 (Mss 581), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 581. Research and manuscripts for books written by Western Kentucky University history professor Carlton Jackson. Includes some personal and professional correspondence, unpublished writing, and a partial memoir. Click on "Additional Files" below to see a listing of correspondents who provided information about the influenza pandemic of 1918. This correspondence is found in Boxes 13 and 14.

‘Mightier Than Marx’: Hassoldt Davis And American Cold War Politics In Postwar Ivory Coast, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

Using the travels of Hassoldt Davis in Ivory Coast to explore the global Cold War in French West Africa in the 1950s, this article argues that the main line of confrontation in the postwar era did not always pit Americans against Russians. In many instances, the struggle for the mind and soul of Africans was between the Americans and the French. The study highlights the role of everyday technology in the expansion of the American informal empire. By focusing on Davis and the significance of low-tech artifacts, the article suggests that in our scrutiny of Cold War science/technology, we need …

The Missiles Of Oklahoma: Southwest Oklahoma's Role In The American Cold War Nuclear Arsenal, 1960-65, Landry Brewer

Faculty Articles & Research

To counter the Soviet Union’s Cold War nuclear threat, the United States government enhanced its offensive nuclear capability in the 1950s by creating intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the Soviet Union. The first American ICBM was the Atlas missile. Southwest Oklahoma near Altus Air Force Base (AFB) played a crucial role in the nation’s nuclear arsenal from 1960 through 1965 by building several missile launch sites that housed Atlas F missiles. The state was rewarded with jobs, massive amounts of federal dollars spent here, and the satisfaction of deterring Soviet aggression while defending the nation against possible attack.

It Tastes Like The East...: The Problem Of Taste In The Gdr, Alice A. Weinreb

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay uses the topic of taste, specifically taste for food, as a way of unpacking the history of the GDR and East-West relations during the late Cold War. It explores the question of East German tastes from two angles: West German fantasies about the inadequacies of the GDR’s food system, and East German nutritionists’ unsuccessful struggles to regulate popular tastes. In particular, it focuses on the moment when popular taste was seen as a serious problem by the GDR state—during the rise of the obesity epidemic in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chilean Coup – Un General Assembly Meeting Simulation Scenario And Background Readings, Kitty Lam

World in the 20th Century

This lesson plan for high school students in World History and United States History courses is related to Augusto Pinochet's 1973 coup d'etat in Chile. Students will simulate a fictitious United Nations General Assembly Meeting in December 1973 to address the crisis in Chile. This lesson is based on material from the CNN Cold War documentary series, episode 18 "Backyard" and primary source material from "Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973", National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 8, by Peter Kornbluh (http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm). There are two documents related to …

Fighting An Invisible Enemy: The Polish Media Campaign Against Radio Free Europe, 1950-1972, Nicholas Kulawiak

Summer Research

This project builds off work done in Spring 2017 for a History 400 paper on the development of Radio Free Europe broadcast strategy in Poland from 1950 to 1956. Broadly, my summer project focuses on the way the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) reacted to and sought to discredit RFE’s broadcasts from 1950 to 1972. The project’s specific analysis is on the way this reaction was manifested in PRL propaganda’s principal outlets: media organs such as state radio stations and newspapers.

My final paper’s central argument is that from 1970 to 1952, RFE was portrayed continuously as an obstacle to …