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From Trusteeship To Containment: American Involvement In Vietnam 1945-1950, Sarah E. Dranoff

Honors Papers

The American involvement in Vietnam has motivated extensive scholarship and reflection from diverse segments of American society. The Vietnamese war for independence and the dynamics and nature of American intervention have been approached from the perspectives of many different disciplines and from all points on the political continuum. The majority of these works address, either directly or implicitly, the fundamental issue of how American involvement can be explained and understood.

The historiography of American involvement in Vietnam covers a wide range of interpretations of the impetus behind the initial commitment, the reasons for progressive escalation, and the rationales for why …

Jewish Women Reformers And Jewish Immigrant Women: The Columbian Council Of Pittsburgh, 1893-1920, Eileen Chotiner

Honors Papers

I began this project with an interest in Jewish immigrant women's adjustment to American life. I first examined general patterns of immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century, to determine how Jewish immigration fit into the patterns and specifically, the. role of Jewish women in Jewish immigration. I also sought to discover how Jews differed from other immigrant groups, and how these differences affected the establishment of Jewish communities in America.

Immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century falls into two categories : from approximately 1840 to 1880, immigrants came mostly from northern, western and central …

An Appraisal: George S. Messersmith On The Relationship Between The United States And Germany 1933-1934, Donald C. Philips

Honors Papers

On a day to day basis, Messersmith was considered to be the State Department's most reliable and informed observer. He was able to establish contacts with a number of high ranking Nazi officials and he used these contacts to substantiate his reports. Messersmith commented on almost every aspect of German life and these comments were read by most American policymakers, including Roosevelt. His reports were considered particularly valuable by two State Department officials, William Phillips and J. Pierrepont Moffat, who both worked in the Western European Division.

Some of Messersmith's analysis is skewed and, sometimes, incorrect. There were two faults …

The United States And Naval Limitation: From The Washington Conference To Pearl Harbor, David Jonas Murphy

Honors Papers

In conducting their foreign affairs, nations rarely act for purely altruistic reasons. Often, when their stated objectives are noble ones- such as world peace- one can find others which stem from the perceived needs of the individual nation or nations. The United States has not been an exception to this rule. Between World War I and World War II the foreign policy of the United States had as one of its major goals world peace or, failing world peace, peace for the United States. Naturally, this was not a totally altruistic ideal. It was believed that the United States would …

Voices In The Wind: American Opposition To The Korean War, Joseph E. Slater

Honors Papers

Very little has been written on the peace movement during the Korean war. Historian Joseph Conlin assessed the period and concluded that "when hostilities with North Korean troops commenced in 1950, the American antiwar movement stood at its nadir." Lawrence Wittner's fine book Rebels Against War is devoted to the American peace movement from 1941 to 1960. Yet out of this book's 300- odd pages, less than three concern the movement during the Korean war- and most of this discussion is focused on those elements in the movement which supported the war. This is typical of the major secondary sources …