Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

A Cold War On The Dark Knight: Batman And American Culture 1939-1975, Angelica Cantrell

Honors Theses

In 1930, Batman fought the prevailing fears of urban America. With the addition of Robin in 1940, the comics changed to appeal to children and continued to follow the cultural trends of America during World War II and into the Cold War. Fear and paranoia during the Cold War influenced American culture and domestic policy. Anticommunism was ingrained in American social structure and initiated efforts at social containment in the 1950s. American culture shifted to emphasize morality and domesticity, and many Americans actively sought to protect traditional Christian values in their society.

Among the rising concerns, Americans became increasingly worried …

A Developing Italian Transnational Activism: Dialogues Between Italian Leftist Parties And American Political Organizations, 1935-1955, Matthew Daniel Halikias

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines and explores through several case studies involving the political and intellectual significance of the development of a transnational dialogue between Italian leftist parties and American political organizations from the period before the Second World War to the Early Cold War period. An investigation of Girolamo Valenti and his actions with unions and labor-minded organizations demonstrates his activism with cultivating and establishing a strong relationship in the United States and Italy. This relationship materializes in the advocacy of relief for Italy after the Second World War, promoting for American involvements in Italian politics, and attempting to have an …

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.

Soft Power And Polite Propaganda: Public Diplomacy In The Early Cold War, Coby Aloi

Departmental Honors Projects

In the Aftermath of the Second World War, the United States and The USSR stood as the only true superpowers. Both states held their own spheres of influence, with interests in spreading that influence. With the fear of nuclear war and the still looming shadow of global conflict, a new brand of diplomacy began to take hold as the preferred method of international relations between adversarial states. Soft power was beginning to become an influential means to accomplishing the goal of nations abroad.

The careful curation of print media, literature, and informational campaigns became an important element to how the …

A Dazzling Détente: Exploring The Cultural Facets Of The Kennedys’ 1961 Visit To Paris And The Instrumental Role Of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Maxwell Riley Toth

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This project is an exploration into John and Jackie Kennedy’s 1961 trip to Paris, France, only four months after the former was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. In discussing this state visit, scholars often analyze it through a political lens—specifically, the gravity of the issues a novice President Kennedy (1917–1963) and an avuncular President de Gaulle (1890–1969) discussed tête-à-tête, and the visit’s role as a stepping stone to Kennedy’s weighty conversation with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna days later. Yet, outside of the conference room at the Élysée, cultural moments and gestures throughout the sojourn offer insights …

Weaponizing Ballet: An Episode In American Cold War Diplomacy, Remy Laray Naumann

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In October 1962, as American citizens were building bomb shelters in their backyards, the New York City Ballet toured the Soviet Union, receiving raving applause from Soviet audiences. The tour is just one example of the many ballet exchanges in the late 1950s and early 1960s between the United States and the Soviet Union. In these acts of cultural diplomacy, ballet companies became ideological weapons, selling their country's achievements to audiences abroad.

Tours such as the New York City Ballet’s 1962 trip have been acknowledged in analyses on cultural diplomacy between the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War …

The Spirit Of Cancun : Basic Needs And Development During The Cold War, Christian Ruth

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This project examines how international development changed during the second half of the Cold War, using development to highlight transformations in global discourse on needs, rights, and socioeconomic equity. After the late 1960s, nations in the global North, most notably the United States, struggled to reconcile the failure of the modernization schemes they had funded throughout the global South. In response, experts and activists around the world worked together in the 1970s to create a diverse array of alternative theories meant to uplift socioeconomically disadvantaged nations which centered on the concept of basic human needs. Yet the idea of basic …

The Pragmatic Interplay Between Media And Political Policy: An Analysis Of The Day After And Its Implications On American Cold War Nuclear Policy And Opinion, Claire Dawkins

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

On November 10th, 1983 the TV movie, The Day After aired in the living rooms of homes across America. This dramatic portrayal of a nuclear attack on the citizens of Kansas and Missouri, scared Americans watching. Depicting the desolate landscape of a post-nuclear-attack world, paired with the feeling of inevitability of nuclear destruction, the American people began to change their feelings about nuclear weapons. But why does this movie matter? And how can we trace any meaningful influence this movie had on American Culture and understanding of nuclear war? This paper intends to expose the ways The Day After changed …

The Buraimi Crisis: The Anglo-American Rivalry In The Arabian Peninsula, 1949-1955, Omar S. Abdellatif, Abdulaziz Al Meajel

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Through the case study of the Buraimi War, this essay aims to dissect the impact of British and American influence on political systems in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly as a result of their post-Second World War rivalry in the region. It is argued that as a result of Great power rivalry and the clash between traditional political concepts and that brought on by Western powers, that the adoption of political institutions of European conception would accelerate. Thus, the modern state system in Arabia was born marked by territorially defined boundaries and increased authoritarianism.

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 …

Samuel Huntington, Professionalism, And Self-Policing In The Us Army Officer Corps, Brian Mcallister Linn

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Drawing on Samuel P. Huntington’s three phases of self-regulation used to determine if an occupation qualifies as a profession, this article focuses on the third phase of policing and removing those who fail to uphold the standards set forth in the first two phases. It reviews how the US Army implemented this phase following the Civil War through the post–Vietnam War years and the implications for the officer corps.

The Evolution Of Hybrid Warfare: Implications For Strategy And The Military Profession, Ilmari Käihkö

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The concept of hybrid war has evolved from operational-level use of military means and methods in war toward strategic-level use of nonmilitary means in a gray zone below the threshold of war. This article considers this evolution and its implications for strategy and the military profession by contrasting past and current use of the hybrid war concept and raising critical questions for policy and military practitioners.

“An International Law With Teeth In It”: The Baruch Plan And American Public Opinion, Amir Rezvani

The Yale Undergraduate Research Journal

In 1946, Bernard Baruch, the American representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, introduced the United States’ proposal for international control of atomic energy, known as the Baruch Plan. It suggested a regime under which the United Nations would enforce an international ban on atomic weapons. The proposal, which stated that the United States would destroy its atomic arsenal only once the plan were fully implemented, was blocked in the United Nations by the Soviet Union. This paper argues that domestic public opinion played a significant role in the development, negotiation, and failure of the plan, but that the …

Blitzkrieg: The Evolution Of Modern Warfare And The Wehrmacht’S Impact On American Military Doctrine During The Cold War Era, Briggs Evans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of United States military doctrine was heavily influenced by the Wehrmacht and their early Blitzkrieg campaigns during World War II. This thesis traces the origins of this development and shows how the context of the Cold War led to a heavy influence by the Wehrmacht on American military doctrine. By analyzing studies conducted by the United States Army Historical Division from 1946-1961, I will show how these studies left a profound impact on American Military doctrine, particularly in the context of the Cold War. I will show the development of the Active Defense Doctrine and AirLand Battle during …

Illusory Inclusion: The Underlying Racial Barriers In Civil Defense 1950 - 1965, Hayley R. Dick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Between the years of 1950 and 1965, evacuations and sheltering were used to ensure the protection of American civilians from a nuclear threat. However, not all Americans were able to employ these safety measures to prominent racial hierarchy within civil defense policy. This thesis explores the distribution, attainability, and utilization of civil defense to and by Black Americans. It examines the demographic, societal, and financial discrepancies between white and Black Americans employing census information, federal documents, and newspaper distribution. Owing to deep-rooted disparities in income between white and Black Americans, demographics, and racial ideals, this thesis argues that Black Americans …

Los Zetas, Neoliberalism, And Popular Opposition: A Study In Linkages, Gina R. Lyle

Master's Theses

Los Zetas are considered by security analysts to be a transformative force within transnational criminal organizations (TCO), exporting their unique model throughout Mexico. Los Zetas’ idiosyncratic interventions include their diversification of criminal operations, professionalization of TCO security, sophisticated use of media and technology, extreme forms of violent coercion, and decentralized command structure. This project aims to complicate the narrative that Los Zetas emerged because of top leaders’ sadistic tendencies or due to an inherently violent culture in Mexico by reframing the group’s evolution within historical processes. Moving beyond Los Zetas, this project examines how persons affected by Los Zetas’ indiscriminate …

Session 1: Panel 3: Presenter 1 (Paper) -- Fight For Star Wars: The Reagan Doctrine And The Ending Of The Cold War, Roselyn S. Dai

Young Historians Conference

The strenuous conflict between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, which persisted for over four decades, finally came to a close in the early 1990’s, shortly after the presidency of Ronald Reagan. A common assumption is that Reagan’s hardline foreign policies and weapons buildup finally forced the Soviet Union to back down. However, this assumption is only a small portion of the picture. The cause for the ending of the Cold War is a much more nuanced story centered not only around the arms race but also the collapsing Soviet economy and the domestic issues of …

Yankee Go Home: Roci In Latin America, Vitoria Hadba

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, at an event hosted by the United Nations, American artist Robert Rauschenberg announced his most ambitious and controversial project to date: the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange—or ROCI. Blending primary source documents with social art history, I retrace the artist’s steps—and missteps—during the first leg of his tour through Mexico, Chile, and Venezuela. This thesis investigates the convoluted political implications of ROCI in Latin America during the transitional period in which binary Cold War politics were ebbing amidst the rise of a global free-market economy.

The Dark Side Of The Moon: Unpacking Civil Rights And Student Antiwar Criticism Of The Apollo Program, Victoria R. Combs

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

July 20, 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon. To commemorate this historic anniversary, NASA held festivals, and people published books and released movies that reflected the triumph of the Apollo 11 mission. However, this celebratory media fails to illustrate the dissent against the program that existed during the 1960s. This era marked a contentious decade in American history, and the world at large, with a rise in protests and civil unrest fueled by the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. At this same time, the United States was engaged in the space race …

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 …

The United States And Portuguese Angola: Space, Race, And The Cold War In Africa, Alex J. Marino

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an international history of the role of the United States in the process of decolonization in Angola, a former colony of Portugal. I argue that the United States embraced Portugal, Angola, and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo as irreplaceable Cold War allies. Decolonization in Africa challenged America’s relationship with all three countries, as competing forces within the American public called for Washington to adopt an anti-colonial, anti- racist ideology, while others demanded their government to support white supremacy at home and abroad. Decolonization in Angola, a protracted liberation struggle that started in 1961 and lasted until 1974, …

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 …

Foxy Ladies And Badass Super Agents: Legacies Of 1970s Blaxploitation Spy And Detective Heroines, Carlie Nicole Todd

Theses and Dissertations

The presentation of Black femininity in Blaxploitation spy and detective films like Cleopatra Jones (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), and Get Christie Love! (1974) – depicting powerful, independent, and multidimensional characters – was a sharp departure from the derogatory images of African American women in film prior. These films also included some of the first Black spy and detective film heroines – Foxy Brown, Cleo Jones, and Christie Love – that portrayed a “serious” female detective or government agent as the main protagonist and center of the film’s action. These Blaxploitation heroines were unique in how their characters departed from prior …

Fighting Tigers With A Stick: An Evaluation Of U.S. Army Recruitment, Training, And Their Combat Outcomes In The Korean War, Jonathan Banks

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

After the Korean War, most people regarded the performance of the U.S Army in that conflict as largely checkered. It had not once, but twice retreated disgracefully, losing to theoretically inferior third world armies. Its soldiers often performed poorly, not just in battle, but also prison camps. Many scholars, military commentators, and journalists have since tried to dissect the failures of the U.S. Army in Korea. Some have examined whether or not American GIs received proper combat training before and during the war. Indeed, problems existed with American infantry training before and during the early phases of the Korean War. …

Peace Bodies: Women, Encampments, And The Struggle Against Nuclear Weapons During The Cold War, 1979-1992, Janette Clay

Dissertations

"Peace Bodies: Women, Encampments, and the Struggle against Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War, 1972-1992" examines the global 1980s women's peace camping movement. This study aims to explore and comprehend peace in new ways. It is specifically targeted to define peace campers' fundamental peace principles and to discover how they embodied them. This research interrogates the ways in which the peace camping movement influenced the political and cultural developments that led to nuclear de-escalation in the final years of the Cold War. The sources for this research include women's peace camp archival records, film footage and photographs, interviews, and oral …

The Sale Of The Romanian-Germans (1969-1989): Migration, Minority Status, And The Construction Of Ceaușescu’S Maverick State, Nicholas Kennan Hermann

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This project attempts to reassess the paid emigration of Romania's German minority, specifically focusing on its role in the formation of Ceaușescu’s Romania as a semi-independent state during the Cold War. Topics explored include Cold War diplomacy, concepts of diaspora and citizenship, and the legacy of the Ceaușescu regime.

A Historiographical And Pedagogical Pursuit Of The United States In The Atomic Era, Isabel Polletta

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………………...3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes………...29

III. Textbook Critique……………………………..41

IV. New Textbook Entry…………………………..43

V. Bibliography…………………………………....46

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 …

Eisenhower: From “Do-Nothing” To “Did-Everything”, Holly F. Caldwell

Channels: Where Disciplines Meet

Dwight David Eisenhower was a modest man who led a modest life. The 34^th president of the United States was a country boy who hailed from the rural town of Abilene, Kansas. He was not born into instant greatness; instead, he grew into it. He held several notable positions, culminating in the achievement of being elected to the presidency. His presidential reign was relatively calm, with few drastic disruptions, and this period of tranquility led to a public perception of Eisenhower as a “do-nothing” president.

Contrary to the traditional portrayal, historical revisionism has exhibited Eisenhower as an experienced and …