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41 For Freedom: Ballistic Missile Submariners And The Nuclear Deterrent Shield During The Cold War, Jeremy Daniel Long

Masters Theses

Ballistic missile “boomer” submarines were developed in the 1960s as a response to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite which proved the Soviet Union could launch a missile targeting anywhere on Earth. They made use of new nuclear power technology which allowed submarines to stay underwater indefinitely, limited only by the food they could carry to feed their crews. Ballistic missile submarines have served continuously since 1960, patrolling the ocean as the second-strike capability that makes nuclear deterrence possible. The men who served aboard the “41 for Freedom” ballistic missile submarines made innumerable sacrifices and contributed greatly to national …

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 …

Attempted Book Bans: The Censorship Of Queer Themes In The 1950s, María J. Quintana-Rodriguez

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This article aims to explore queer book banning during the 1950s in response to Cold War national defense tactics. The decade witnessed the formation of the first public LGBTQ+ rights organizations in the United States as well as a rise in queer literature and publications. This publicization of queerness in society was seen as a rejection of traditional societal norms and threatened the Cold War-imposed gender ideology. In addition, the fear of Communist expansion led to the conflation of homosexuals and Communists, categorizing queerness and queer-related themes as immoral and as an interference in the United States' fight for democracy. …

Book Review: Switzerland And Sub-Saharan Africa In The Cold War, 1967-1979: Neutrality Meets Decolonisation, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Switzerland and Sub-Saharan Africa in the Cold War, 1967-1979: Neutrality Meets Decolonisation was written as part of the series “New Perspectives on the Cold War,” which looks at different issues, events and regions impacted by the Cold War. While Switzerland was not a major power, nor did it have colonies in Africa or elsewhere, it had economic interests in the continent and a foreign policy that guided its decision making and values, centered around its historical tradition of neutrality. This well researched work of historiography gives readers new insights into Switzerland’s relations, especially with Portuguese colonies during and after decolonization. …

The Success Of Project Mercury Through The Persona Of The Mercury Seven, Cameron D. Reagan

Lux et Fides: A Journal for Undergraduate Christian Scholars

There has been no shortage of literature written on the Mercury Space Program, focusing on many different aspects ranging from the personnel, technology, politics, and achievements of the program. The prevailing discussion of the space program focuses on the astronauts themselves as they gained celebrity status long before they had done anything to merit it. The vast body of scholarship on the topic takes the popularity of the Mercury Seven astronauts as matter-of-fact rather than viewing it as manufactured by NASA in order to bolster support for a largely unproven space program. By emphasizing the “everyman” aspect of the astronauts, …

The Gray Area: Sexuality And Gender In Wartime Reevaluated, Natalie Pendergraft

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

These three works, two academic papers and one screenplay, challenge traditional notions of gender and sexuality during wartime. Queer Vietnam service members did not all experience oppression, all the time, but rather carved out a space for themselves amongst their peers. Female nurses in the early cold war could keep their careers in the medical field due to its unique gendered history despite demobilization efforts across the country in different industries. Finally, through the medium of historical fiction, a Civil War soldier’s fears and desires are questioned as he experiences the phenomenon of the Angel’s Glow, a blue light that …

Children And The Cold War: Race & Hypocrisy Amid Fear Of Nuclear War, Richard D. Mctaggart Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

During the Cold War, American propaganda centered the wellbeing of the child in its messaging warning of atomic attack at the hands of the Soviet Union. However, despite American claims that all children were valued by the United States, this was proven untrue by its unequal treatment of Black children.

From “This Revolution Is Neither Communist Nor Capitalist!” To “Long Live The Socialist Revolution:” The Deterioration Of U.S.-Cuban Relations From 1958-1961, Julia Lyne

Honors Projects

This thesis studies the deterioration of U.S.-Cuban relations from 1958-1961. Mainly drawing from primary sources from the National Archives, it seeks to answer and understand how and why relations deteriorated so rapidly. It pushes against the common belief that U.S.-Cuban relations were doomed from the start, instead highlighting in Chapter One Fidel Castro’s rise to power (and Fulgencio Batista’s fall from power) and revealing that the U.S. government was not entirely against Castro’s seizure of power. Chapter Two explores Castro’s first year in power and the (futile) attempts made by both governments to keep relations alive. Finally, it closes with …

Power In Portrayal: An Exploration Of The Evolving Cold War Relationship Between Germany And America Through Film, Kaleb Wentz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The end of the Second World War brought many questions to the United States. One of the greatest among these was what to do with defeated Germany. Many clamored for the dissolution of the former Nazi State and the shameful humbling of its people while others recognized the value of a revitalized Germany as an ally against the looming threat of an emboldened and empowered postwar Soviet Union. Though retribution held sway immediately following the war, the Cold War consensus of an alliance with West Germany and a reimagining of the German people as victims rather than perpetrators won out …

Scientific Collaboration And The Cold War: 1945-1970, Autumn Wyland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis is an examination of scientific collaboration between 1945 and 1970, covering the end of World War II and through the early stages of the Cold War. Prior to the Second World War, scientific collaboration was frequent and necessary to development and research. World War II created a new atmosphere of secrecy, preventing scientists from collaborating as they once had. This paper examines what that collaboration looked like, how it was derailed and why, how some scientists sought to return to collaboration, sometimes at personal expense, and finally what those effects looked like throughout the Nuclear Age and Space …

“Good War” On The Cool Medium: The Cold War's Influence On The Portrayal Of World War Ii On American Television, Michael A. Losasso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a cultural history of the Cold War’s influence on the portrayal of World War II on American television. In it, I chronicle the production, reception, and presentation of the war of three prominent American-produced documentary series from three periods of the Cold War – Victory at Sea (1952-1953), The Twentieth Century (1957-1966), and The Unknown War (1978). The dissertation posits that from the 1940s-1960s, the television portrayal of World War II was an embodiment of the values- that the United Sates was “fighting” for through a “triumphalist” narrative of a “just war” which recast the role of …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 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, …

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

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 …

The Republican Party: A Narrative Of Good And Evil, Lawrence Cranor

Theses and Dissertations from 2020

In 2020, there is a misconception that the Republican Party is still the party of Abraham Lincoln. The goal of this paper is to prove that statement incorrect and explain how it came to be incorrect by providing a detailed, methodical chain of evidence. It will separate the Party’s perceived image from reality. This paper will analyze pre-Cold War Republican Party and establish the party’s traditional policies before abandoning centrism in the 1960s and 1970s. Then the emerging Republican Party will be compared with the pre-1960 party. This paper will reflect on Republican Party power dynamics, economic strategies, social priorities, …

Amelia Earhart: Myth And Memory, Amy Lutz

Theses

There are a range of theories about Amelia Earhart's disappearance. This thesis considers one of the most long-running theories - The Japanese Capture Theory. This theory posits that Earhart was captured and/or executed by the Japanese upon her disappearance in 1937. The Japanese Capture Theory, from its inception in 1942 to its continued existence today, has considerably impacted the historical memory of Amelia Earhart. A woman who was so beloved and celebrated in life is largely more famous for her death. Her story was retold in hindsight, without her voice. The emergence of theories about her disappearance and popular fascination …

Banking On Belgrade: Nixon’S Foreign Aid Policy With Yugoslavia (1970-1974), Robert 'Bo' Kent

Voces Novae

One of the Nixon Administration’s geopolitical innovations was its willingness to collaborate with communist regimes in order to advance mutual interests. This was demonstrated notably in the Balkans, wherein American policy makers furnished aid to the independent socialist state of Yugoslavia to counter Soviet interests in the region.

Painting The World Crimson: The Global Spread Of Graduate Management Education As Facilitated By Harvard Business School, Keshav Krishnamurty

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The growth and spread of business education worldwide is a phenomenon of contemporary interest, because it has enabled the expansion of a global managerial class that operates as social and economic elites worldwide in a time of growing inequality. I take a historic approach to this contemporary phenomenon by examining the role that Harvard Business School (HBS) played in the 1950s and 1960s in the conceptualization and launch of the now very prominent Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. Using the archival materials at the Special Collections of the Baker Library at Harvard Business School, my research uncovers which …