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In Response To Totalitarianism: The Hawkish Cold War Foreign Diplomacy Of The Europeans Kissinger And Brzezinski During American Détente, D'Otta M. Sniezak

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Despite historians describing the 1970s as a time of détente, both National Security Advisors that dominated America’s foreign policy pursued harsh stances against the Soviet Union. Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski sabotaged peace talks in order help the United States keep its edge against the other world superpower. Most historians point to the similarities between these two men, but what is most often left out of the narrative is that both men witnessed persecution at the hands of totalitarian governments: Kissinger by the Nazis and Brzezinski by both the Nazis and the Soviets. This influence is strong in their first …

Remembering An Invasion: The Panama Intervention In America’S Political Memory, Dave Nagaji

Senior Theses

In December of 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, a military invasion of the country of Panama, capturing Manuel Noriega and overthrowing his government. This research project examines how Colin Powell, Richard Cheney, James Baker, and George H.W. Bush presented Operation Just Cause in their memoirs. It attempts to determine how these senior leaders’ depictions of this invasion incorporated it into the Bush administration’s overall foreign-policy strategy. The research finds that their general approach was to present the Panama intervention as an isolated incident which had no intentional link to other major events at the time, was not …

The Far Left In Australia, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Writing The Official History Of The Joint Intelligence Committee, Michael Goodman

Secrecy and Society

This article recounts the experience of a professional historian in being given the keys to the kingdom: access to the classified vaults of Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee. This article includes some of the problems in having access, but complying with the sensitivities around official accounts, difficulties in writing a global history, or trying to make the work of a committee interesting and accessible, and of trying to determine the impact of intelligence on policy.

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.

The Distant Early Warning Line: Geographies, Infrastructures, And Environments Of Warning, Jordan Steingard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line was a Cold War era project aimed at providing advanced warning of incoming Soviet attack via the northern periphery of Canada and the United States. The Line was comprised of radar stations across the 69th parallel, spanning from Western Alaska to Baffin Island, about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Academic institutions and research labs, private corporations, and military entities collaborated to develop the DEW Line.

The domes used to shield the radar from the extreme terrain were designed by architectural icon Buckminster Fuller, who was elaborating upon a symbolic language of security …

Built Ford Tough: Masculinity, Gerald Ford's Presidential Museum, And The Macho Presidential Style, Dustin Jones

Major Papers

In Cold War America, spanning roughly from 1945-1991, masculinity was in crisis. The rise of Communism and the Soviet Union had led to a fear of spies, infiltrators, and defectors known most commonly as the Red Scare. Americans were encouraged to be hyper vigilant in sussing out deviant behaviour. Alongside this scare came the Lavender Scare. It was suggested that homosexuals were deviant peoples and were therefore more susceptible to being turned Communist than their heterosexual counterparts. This led to a crisis of masculinity where even the smallest suggestion of femininity could lead to accusations of potential compromise, an effect …

‘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 …

“As An American, May I Have The Privilege Of Pulling The Switch?” : The Fate Of Julius And Ethel Rosenberg During The Second Red Scare In Cold War America, Morgan Peters

Honors Theses

The Cold War escalated at the end of World War II when the tension between the United States and Soviet Union significantly increased. The stakes of the Cold War were considerably high, especially during the atomic age. Hence the creation of the Venona Project, which began in 1943 and was originally a small project intended to break down Soviet diplomatic communications, but later expanded to be a full-blown counterintelligence operation. The project’s American cryptologists took nearly two years to decode the first Soviet coded telegraph cable. The project exposed multiple Soviet Spies in the United States, some of the most …

To Be Everything: Sylvia Plath And The Problem That Has No Name, Alanna P. Mcauliffe

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores, in depth, how the poetry of Sylvia Plath operates as an expression of female discontent in the decade directly preceding the sexual revolution. This analysis incorporates both sociohistorical context and theory introduced in Betty Friedan’s 1963 work The Feminine Mystique. In particular, Plath’s work is put in conversation with Friedan’s notion of the “problem that has no name,” an all-consuming sense of malaise and dissatisfaction that plagued American women in the postwar era. This notion is furthered by close-readings of poems written throughout various stages of Plath’s career (namely “Spinster,” “Two Sisters of Persephone,” “Elm,” “Ariel,” “Daddy,” …

The History Books Tell It? Collective Bargaining In Higher Education In The 1940s, William A. Herbert

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This article presents a history of unionization and collective bargaining in higher education during and just after World War II, decades before the establishment of statutory frameworks for labor representation. It examines the collective bargaining program adopted by the University of Illinois in 1945, along with contracts negotiated at other institutions, which demonstrated support for employee self-organization. It will also presents counter-examples of institutions using the courts and congressional investigators to defeat unionization efforts. . Lastly, the article will examine the role of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) and its predecessor unions in organizing and negotiating on behalf of …

The Sleeping Giant: The Effects Of Housing Titan Ii Missiles In Arkansas And Kansas From 1962 To 1987, Michael Johnson Anthony

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the Cold War, thirty-six sites across Kansas and Arkansas were selected to house Titan II intercontinental missiles. These devices could strike enemy targets 8,000 nautical miles away all while hitting inside an area of one square mile. These technological marvels quickly became an indispensable part of President Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara’s ‘flexible defense’ strategy. While many authors have studied the ramifications of these devices on American foreign policy, few have researched the domestic implications of the missiles. This work looks to fill this void by investigating the Titan II missile program in Arkansas and Kansas from its construction …

The Story Of The Berlin Tunnel: What The Operations Narrative Teaches Us About Covert Conflict In An Ongoing Cold War, Jonathan Collier

Graduate Thesis Collection

Operation Gold (1953-56) was a collaborative covert operation between the American CIA and British SIS. The two major objectives: firstly, rebalance the state of affairs in covert activity, which the KGB had been dominating heading into the 1950s. Secondly, gain more detailed, valuable information on the state of Soviet forces throughout Europe and gain prior warning of possible information. The technological nature of the operation marks it as the beginning of a move away from traditional espionage. Understanding the narrative of Operation Gold establishes a firm foundation on which to address the development of covert activity into the modern day. …

“Better Unmentioned:” An Assessment Of Reagan Administration Aid To Pakistan, Panama, And Zaire., Charles G. Sherrard

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract.

During the Cold War, the Reagan administration justified American support to the Noriega dictatorship in Panama, the Mobutu dictatorship in what was then called Zaire, and the regime of Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan, by stating that it was necessary to overcome the Soviet Union. While the alliances with these regimes did help to bring about the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, each of these three regimes also acted against US interests via the promotion of drug smuggling or militancy, or forging other alliances with powers potentially hostile to American interests .[1] However, Soviet quagmires in these …

The Economic Roots Of The Cold War: The Imf, Ito And Other Economic Issues In Post-War Soviet-American Relations, Kristina V. Minkova

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In light of newly released archival resources, this article examines the traditional historiography of Soviet-American relations focusing on economic relations at the end of World War II.

Science And Culture On The Soviet Screen : Russian And Member Republic Biographical Films During The Early Cold War, 1946-1953, Bryan Keith Herman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Between 1947 and 1953, the Soviet Union produced fourteen biographical films about writers, composers, and scientists. These films supported the cultural policies of the zhdanovshchina, a period characterized by Andrei Zhdanov’s policies asserting Russia’s leading role in world science and culture while downplaying Western influence. These biographical films involved some of the top cinematic talent in the Soviet Union, including Nikolai Cherkasov, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Grigorii Kozintsev. Although national pride was central to all the biographical films, this dissertation argues that once their historical context is restored, the cultural and scientific biographical films comment on the demonization of …

The Complexity Of Canadian Anti-Communism, 1945-1967, Ian Muller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation argues that the history of anti-communism in English Canada between 1945 and 1967 is more diverse and complicated than traditionally acknowledged. Often dispersed throughout the scholarship as elements of other Cold War topics, including espionage, state surveillance, and policing, anti-communism is the central subject of this investigation. A series of case studies are used to analyze individual encounters with the state and civic engagement with the domestic threat of communism. The unique politico-cultural approach of this dissertation will bolster Canada’s Cold War historiography by investigating both public and private manifestations of anti-communism.

The intersections of public safety, the …

The Beautiful Game As A Soviet Game: Sportsmanship, Style, And Statecraft During The Golden Age Of Soviet Soccer, Caleb Wright

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

At the end of World War Two, the Soviet Union occupied a new global position and found itself in a Cold War with the West. Cold War conflict occurred in a variety of areas, including military, political, and economic. Additionally, athletics became an arena of direct competition between capitalist and communist nations. Victory in the Olympics, World Cup, and other international tournaments became just as important as economic success or advancements in military technology. In many sports, such as ice hockey, the Soviet Union achieved superiority over the West, but regarding soccer, the nation’s most popular sport, the USSR struggled …