Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Secrets, Soviets, And Sverdlovsk: Critiques Of The Biological Weapons Convention And Biosecurity In The 1970s And 1980s, Morgan Kelley

Student Research Submissions

The Biological Weapons Convention, initially ratified in 1975, banned the production and stockpiling of biological weapons; however, it has faced considerable modern criticism for being unenforceable and not strong enough to ensure states' compliance. These modern critiques are based on the knowledge that the Soviet Union was in violation of the Convention, which was not confirmed until 1989. By analyzing the reactions to the Biological Weapons Convention by scholars and scientists, American intelligence officials, and American news media, it becomes clear that concerns about the Convention did exist prior to 1989, even when for many it was not certain that …

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 …

British Neo-Colonialism In Malaya And Singapore, And U.S. Empire In The Pacific, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay places the Vietnam War upon the larger canvas of Southeast and East Asian history by studying the long shadow that Britain’s Empire cast over U.S. entanglements across the region. It shows how British officials in Malaya and Singapore directly contributed to the expansion of US involvement in post-1945 Southeast Asia, as well as the overall pro-US trajectory of the region well before the Americanization of the Vietnam conflict.

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.

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.

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. …

Douglas Macarthur's Nation-Building: The Reconstruction Of Japan, Carson Nathaniel Newman

Masters Theses

At the end of World War II, Japan was militarily and economically devastated; Hiroshima and Nagasaki were radiated ruins; and the people were on the brink of starvation. Japan’s situation in 1945 looked very bleak as its people slowly began to rebuild their lives and move past years of bloody war. Transforming Japan meant replacing a military state focused on expansion with a parliamentary democracy focused on economic prosperity through innovation, industry, and peace. The American occupation lasted eight years and by the 1960s the Japanese economy was well on its ways to becoming the third largest in the world. …

The Face Of Intervention: Military Humanitarianism During The 1965 Dominican Crisis, Wesley Hazzard

Dissertations

On April 28, 1965 the US military intervened in the Dominican Republic’s civil war. This dissertation argues that the military did not deploy to fight a war but to create a favorable environment for the establishment of a pro-US government. The US military relied on humanitarian aid through civic action programs and civil affairs operations to diminish the Dominican populations’ interest in leftist political organizations and platforms. The civil affairs and civic action programs served to both alleviate the hardships of the Dominican people, turn them away from leftist policies, and build support for a US friendly government. The US …

Serving With Pride: Military Experience And The Formation Of The Queer Female Identity In Mid-Century America, Kathlene Ward, Elizabeth Escobedo, Susan Schulten

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

At the inception of World War II, the United States military adapted to include women within its ranks with the creation of the Women’s Army Corps. Likewise, psychology’s implementation into military procedures legitimized systematic exclusion and removal of queer persons seeking military involvement. Such factors resulted in a particularly unique environment for queer servicewomen. The birth of the Cold War brought about a new wave of heterosexual expectations that forced queer individuals in the U.S. military even further into the closet. This project seeks to uncover how gender and sexuality expectations placed upon queer women serving in the World War …

Educating Strategic Lieutenants At West Point, Scott A. Silverstone

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues West Point responded to the changing strategic environment from the end of the Cold War through the post-9/11 period by innovating its curriculum. Over the past several decades, however, the academy’s educational model has remained remarkably stable, rooted in an enduring commitment to a rigorous liberal education as the best preparation for officers confronting the inherent uncertainties of future wars.

Educating Strategic Lieutenants At Sandhurst, An Jacobs

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article examines how well military education at the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst delivers lieutenants capable of coping with the complexities of their operational environment and the strategic implications of their decisions.

Us And The Cold War In Latin America, Thomas Field

Publications

The Cold War in Latin America had marked consequences for the region’s political and economic evolution. From the origins of US fears of Latin American Communism in the early 20th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, regional actors played central roles in the drama. Seeking to maximize economic benefit while maintaining independence with regard to foreign policy, Latin Americans employed an eclectic combination of liberal and anti-imperialist discourses, balancing frequent calls for anti-Communist hemispheric unity with periodic diplomatic entreaties to the Soviet bloc and the nonaligned Third World. Meanwhile, US Cold War policies toward …

Ike's Last War: Making War Safe For Society, Jesse A. Faugstad

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis analyzes how Eisenhower defined war and its utility in his New Look defense policy and the ramifications for America’s interactions with the world through its foreign policy. It argues that Eisenhower redefined the relationship between war and society as he executed his grand strategy, further removing society from the decision for war. To avoid what he believed to be the inevitable global destruction of a general war turned nuclear, Eisenhower broadened the scope of ‘war” to balance domestic opinion for containing communism while also avoiding the devastating consequences of war in American society. By authorizing coups in Iran …

Sexual Orientation And Personnel Security, Jennifer Terry, Richard W. Bloom

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

Dr. Jennifer Terry and IBPP editor Dr. Richard Bloom discuss constructs like ‘formations of sexuality’ and sexual orientation in the context of personnel security, especially within Cold War public discourse. As well, a discussion on war, militarism, and medical research. Worthy of further exploration in the context of security and intelligence activities and only briefly touched on is the academic area of the history of consciousness.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 Cold War In The Eastern Mediterranean: An Interpretive Global History, James M. Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers the first global history of the Cold War in the eastern Mediterranean. It examines the international linkages that bound Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus with superpowers, non-aligned states, and transnational movements during the second half of the twentieth century, and it considers the effects of such linkages upon the eastern Mediterranean’s domestic arenas. Throughout, it demonstrates that two forces – synthesis of outside influence alongside consolidation of internal identities – dictated the region’s experiences during the Cold War. And though the international environment furnished the conditions within which the region’s societies pursued the project of nation-building, indigenous forces …

Lessons Unlearned: Army Transformation And Low-Intensity Conflict, Pat Proctor

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article examines the US Army’s experiences and lessons learned during military interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. It explores why these lessons did not affect the Army transformation, directed in the late-1990s by James M. Dubik, John W. Hendrix, John N. Abrams, and Eric K. Shinseki.

Navigating The Third Offset Strategy, Damon V. Coletta

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article suggests adding a “craftsman” at lower ranks to steer private-sector projects through the Third Offset Strategy. This strategy was established by experienced leadership at the Pentagon to increase military acquisitions of automation and artificial intelligence technology.

The Missiles Of Oklahoma: Southwest Oklahoma's Role In The American Cold War Nuclear Arsenal, 1960-65, Landry Brewer

Faculty Articles & Research

To counter the Soviet Union’s Cold War nuclear threat, the United States government enhanced its offensive nuclear capability in the 1950s by creating intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the Soviet Union. The first American ICBM was the Atlas missile. Southwest Oklahoma near Altus Air Force Base (AFB) played a crucial role in the nation’s nuclear arsenal from 1960 through 1965 by building several missile launch sites that housed Atlas F missiles. The state was rewarded with jobs, massive amounts of federal dollars spent here, and the satisfaction of deterring Soviet aggression while defending the nation against possible attack.

Dictatorship Across Borders: How Brazil Influenced The Chilean Coup D’État Of 1973, Mila Burns Nascimento

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Based on the testimony of Brazilian exiles who lived in Chile during the coup d’état of 1973, on documents recently declassified by the Brazilian Truth Commission and the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Relations, and on broad archival research in United States and South American collections, this dissertation investigates the political, economic, and diplomatic relations between Brazil and Chile from Salvador Allende’s candidacy to presidency and the first days of the Chilean military dictatorship. Despite the the widely held notion that the United States was the one and only supporter of the Chilean September 11 coup, this theis shows that …

Kissinger’S Strategy In The Iraqi Kurdish Rebellion Of 1972-75: False Start Or Foundation Of American-Kurdish Partnership?, Jonathan C. Esty

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

Rationality, Parapsychology, And Artificial Intelligence In Military And Intelligence Research By The United States Government In The Cold War, Guy M. Lomeo

Theses and Dissertations

A study analyzing the roles of rationality, parapsychology, and artificial intelligence in military and intelligence research by the United States Government in the Cold War. An examination of the methodology behind the decisions to pursue research in two fields that were initially considered irrational.

The Crisis Of American Military Primacy And The Search For Strategic Solvency, Hal Brands, Eric Edelman

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Review: Sylvia Martin, 'Ink In Her Veins: The Troubled Life Of Aileen Palmer', (Crawley: Uwa Publishing, 2016)., Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review: Sylvia Martin, 'Ink In Her Veins: The Troubled Life Of Aileen Palmer', (Crawley: Uwa Publishing, 2016)., Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The United States As The Reluctant Ally, Magnus Petersson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.