Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Disaffection And Othering: Beyond Our Coordinates, Christen Kadkhodai

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

"Othering” is just one of many tools nations use during war time to garner support for the war effort. “Othering” in media often goes undetected, a subtle framing of one’s own viewpoint as the viewpoint and the gaze, often at the exclusion and alienation of others. This collection of essays explores how individuals and institutions “Othered” during wartime. Essays “A Review of Walt Disney’s Life and ‘Othering’” and “Walt Disney’s ‘Reluctant Dragon’ and the 1941 Strike,” study how and why Walt Disney “Othered” certain audiences in his films The Reluctant Dragon, Saludos Amigos, and The Three Caballeros. …

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 …

Star Wars: The Clone Wars And Popular Culture In America, Ubaldo Zermeno

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The Clone Wars animated series is part of the Star Wars storyline taking place before the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. The central premise of The Clone Wars is that of war, one being waged by a biologically manufactured clone army. George Lucas’ intent for the original Star Wars was to create a social dialogue reflecting the ideological reasons for, and effects of, the Vietnam War. The Clone Wars continues Lucas’s examination of American wartime policies and their effects on society.

The themes in The Clone Wars are diverse; however, this analysis will cover the …

So Others May Live: The Price Of Healthcare In Combat, Robert Del Toro

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

“Medics carried more responsibilities than dry feet, salt tablets, syphilis, and puncture wounds,” U.S. Army Medic Ben Sherman stated after reflecting on his tour in Vietnam. On the battlefields of North Africa, Italy, France, and Vietnam, the medics of the U.S. Army Medical Department faced the difficult duty of preserving life while death surrounded them. Their patients were not strangers but, men they had grown close to, they were comrades and family. Analyzing the memoirs and letters of forward medical personnel from the Second World War and the Vietnam War, this thesis analyzes how a medic’s care went beyond the …

No More Having Your Cake And Eating It Too: The Nixon Doctrine, South Korea, And The Vietnam War, Vanessa Zenji

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The fact that approximately 300,000 South Korean soldiers participated in the Vietnam War is little known to many Americans. The impact of this on the the U.S.-South Korean bilateral alliance is even less known. This thesis examines how, during the period from 1969 until the end of the Vietnam War, the Richard Nixon administration and the South Korean Park Chung-hee administration, balanced their own priorities with those of their bilateral allies. For President Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, the foreign policy priority centered on improving relations with the superpowers, particularly the Soviet Union and China. The United …

Stop Talking About Sorrow: Nixon’S Communications Strategy After Lam Son 719, Dominic K. So

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

March 1971 was tough for President Richard Nixon. The American people were tired of the Vietnam War, with many still recovering from the violent anti-war protests of 1970. Congress had just passed an amendment prohibiting U.S. ground troops from operating outside of the borders of South Vietnam. Both the public and secret negotiations with Hanoi were stalled. Confidential channels with Beijing and Moscow about diplomatic initiatives had gone cold. Moreover, Lam Son 719, the joint U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Laos that began in February, was turning out to be a failure. The operation, Nixon’s military gamble to prove …

Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Withdrawal is a groundbreaking reassessment that tells a far different story of the Vietnam War. Daddis convincingly argues that the entire US effort in South Vietnam was incapable of reversing the downward trends of a complicated Vietnamese conflict that by 1968 had turned into a political-military stalemate. Despite a new articulation of strategy, Abrams's approach could not materially alter a war no longer vital to US national security or global dominance. Once the Nixon White House made the political decision to withdraw from Southeast Asia, Abrams's military strategy was unable to change either the course or outcome of a decades' …

“A Disconnected Dialogue: American Military Strategy, 1964-1968,” Oklahoma Humanities, Vol. 10, No. 2, Fall-Winter 2017., Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

"The admission, supported by a careful reading of the historical record, begs larger questions: How do we remember American strategy in Vietnam? What language do we use to describe a war that proved so tragic, not only for the United States but, perhaps more importantly, for the millions of Vietnamese who lost their lives in a decades-long civil war? In coming to grips with a complex war, Americans, then and now, have relied on a series of tropes to streamline their conversations about a distasteful war."

Faith In War: The American Roots Of Global Conflict, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

War has become a form of secular religion for many Americans in the modern era. Much of our deployment of military power during the last 50 years has rested on a set of absolute beliefs about the overall utility of war. In the process, policymakers and citizens alike maintain an enduring faith that the United States, via its military forces, has the power to transform societies abroad.

Choosing Progress: Evaluating The "Salesmanship" Of The Vietnam War In 1967, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"As the president and his war managers increasingly saw Vietnam as a 'race between accomplishment and patience,' publicizing progress became an integral part of the war. Yet far from a unique case of bureaucratic dishonesty, the 1967 salesmanship campaign demonstrates the reality, even necessity, of conversation gaps when one is assessing progress in wars where the military struggle abroad matters less than the political one at home."

Westmoreland’S War: Reassessing American Strategy In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

An original and major reinterpretation of American strategy during the Vietnam War which totally reconsiders the generalship of William Westmoreland and offers a more balanced picture of the US Army in Vietnam. The book's thesis that US strategy was more than just 'attrition' confronts decades' worth of historical narratives which argue we lost in Vietnam due to bad leadership and an incorrect strategy

American Military Strategy In The Vietnam War, 1965– 1973, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

For nearly a decade, American combat soldiers fought in South Vietnam to help sustain an independent, noncommunist nation in Southeast Asia. After U.S. troops departed in 1973, the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975 prompted a lasting search to explain the United States’ first lost war. Historians of the conflict and participants alike have since critiqued the ways in which civilian policymakers and uniformed leaders applied—some argued misapplied—military power that led to such an undesirable political outcome. While some claimed U.S. politicians failed to commit their nation’s full military might to a limited war, others contended that most officers fundamentally …