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Full-Text Articles in History

A Holy Tug Of War: Us Christians Against The Contras (1970-1990), Mark Maxwell Brown Jan 2021

A Holy Tug Of War: Us Christians Against The Contras (1970-1990), Mark Maxwell Brown

Theses and Dissertations--History

After the Sandinista revolution of 1979 ousted the longstanding Somoza dynasty of Nicaragua, the small Central American nation became an obsession of US foreign policy as the Reagan administration committed its efforts to deposing the leftist revolutionary government through the funding and training of the Contras, a counter-revolutionary guerrilla group. With the Cold War at a boiling point, continued control and influence over Central America became a pillar of US anticommunist agenda. Uniquely, many of the most ardent critics of the Reagan administration during this period of violent intervention were Christian missionaries. The Sandinistas were able to defeat the Somoza …


To “Reawaken The Conscience Of Mankind”: The International War Crimes Tribunal And Transnational Human Rights Activism During The Vietnam War, 1966-1967, Cody J. Foster Jan 2021

To “Reawaken The Conscience Of Mankind”: The International War Crimes Tribunal And Transnational Human Rights Activism During The Vietnam War, 1966-1967, Cody J. Foster

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation looks at the International War Crimes Tribunal (IWCT) as a vessel for human rights’ ideas during the Vietnam War. I argue that the IWCT supported a transnational advocacy network that used the language of human rights to oppose the Vietnam War and rally support from those around the world who stood against American imperialism. On the one hand, the tribunal precedes the institutionalization of human rights in the 1970s. On the other, it is an extension of the human rights norms that emerge after World War II through the passage of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights …


Statelessness And Contested Sovereignty In The Middle East: The United States, Palestinian Refugees, The Muslim Brotherhood, Syrian Ethnic Minorities, And The Early Cold War, 1945 – 1954, John Perry Jan 2021

Statelessness And Contested Sovereignty In The Middle East: The United States, Palestinian Refugees, The Muslim Brotherhood, Syrian Ethnic Minorities, And The Early Cold War, 1945 – 1954, John Perry

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation examines the significance of America’s interactions with stateless actors. It argues that it was groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine’s refugees, and ethnic minorities, not the U.S. and Soviet governments, nor the state governments of the region, which dictated how the Cold War unfolded in the Middle East. These groups transformed the policy decisions, strategies, and alliances of both native regimes and the superpowers. Traditionally, historians have looked at the global politics of the Cold War through the lens of state-to-state relations. How have state governments interacted with each other and how did this influence the strategies …


The Hopes And The Realities Of Aviation In French Indochina, 1919-1940, Gregory Charles Seltzer Jan 2017

The Hopes And The Realities Of Aviation In French Indochina, 1919-1940, Gregory Charles Seltzer

Theses and Dissertations--History

My dissertation examines how and why the French employed aviation in the five constituent parts of French Indochina (Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina, Laos, and Tonkin) during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. I argue that the French, believing that the modern technology of powered flight possessed seemingly endless potential, saw aviation as a vehicle for extending, consolidating, developing, and protecting their interests both within the colony and around Southeast and East Asia. Aircraft, whether civil or military, were viewed and used as a multi-purpose tool of empire. Indeed, planes were employed for a variety of tasks in Indochina: transportation …


How Hostile Was The Space Race? An Examination Of Soviet-American Antagonism And Cooperation In Space, Mitchell Mundorff Jan 2016

How Hostile Was The Space Race? An Examination Of Soviet-American Antagonism And Cooperation In Space, Mitchell Mundorff

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

It is commonly accepted that the United States and the Soviet Union competed, and did not cooperate, with one and other between World War II and the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s. This is problematic, due to several joint projects undertaken by the two nations during this period, and especially the Apollo-Soyuz Experimental Test Project. Analysis of contemporary and secondary sources shows that though there was a large degree of competition between these superpowers, the idea of working together was proposed several times before it became a reality. Once the nations decided to move forward with Apollo-Soyuz, …


Freedom From Want: Famine Relief In The Horn Of Africa, Christian T. Ruth Jan 2016

Freedom From Want: Famine Relief In The Horn Of Africa, Christian T. Ruth

Theses and Dissertations--History

The United States, during both the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan administrations, pursued humanitarian relief in the Horn of Africa and East Africa with an eye towards Cold War politics. During the Carter administration the focus was on Ethiopia and the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, while during the Reagan administration the United States’ efforts were mainly targeted towards Sudan and the regime of Gaffar Nimeiry. In both instances, the United States was concerned with the politics of the Cold War, trying to create a more positive image of the U.S. abroad by relieving world hunger, while also propping up …


Epidemic And Opportunity: American Perceptions Of The Spanish Influenza Epidemic, Jonathan Chilcote Jan 2016

Epidemic And Opportunity: American Perceptions Of The Spanish Influenza Epidemic, Jonathan Chilcote

Theses and Dissertations--History

During the final months of the Great War, the loss of human life was not confined to the battlefields of Western Europe. The Spanish influenza virus was rapidly spreading around the globe¸ and would ultimately leave millions dead in its wake. Some American groups, both public and private, saw the pandemic as a blessing in disguise. They interpreted the pandemic as a sign that their work, whether religious, political, commercial, or health, was more vital to the world than ever before. Influenza reinforced their existing beliefs in the rightness and necessity of their causes, and used the pandemic as a …


Foreign Affairs: Policy, Culture, And The Making Of Love And War In Vietnam, Amanda C. Boczar Jan 2015

Foreign Affairs: Policy, Culture, And The Making Of Love And War In Vietnam, Amanda C. Boczar

Theses and Dissertations--History

Foreign Affairs: Policy, Culture, and the Making of Love and War in Vietnam investigates the interplay between war and society leading to and during the Vietnam War. This project intertwines histories of foreign relations, popular culture, and gender and sexuality as lenses for understanding international power relations during the global Cold War more broadly. By examining sexual encounters between American service members and Vietnamese civilian women, this dissertation argues that relationships ranging from prostitution to dating, marriage, and rape played a significant role in the diplomacy, logistics, and international reception of the war. American disregard for South Vietnamese morality laws …


The United States And The Congo, 1960-1965: Containment, Minerals And Strategic Location, Erik M. Davis Jan 2013

The United States And The Congo, 1960-1965: Containment, Minerals And Strategic Location, Erik M. Davis

Theses and Dissertations--History

The Congo Crisis of the early 1960s served as a satellite conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Scholars have argued about U.S. motivations and interests involved in the Congo Crisis. The major division between scholars is between those who contend the United States acted for national security reasons and those scholars who argue the United States desired to establish a neocolonial regime to protect economic interests pertaining to vast Congolese mineral wealth. The argument of this thesis is that the United States policy in the Congo between 1960 and 1965 focused on installing …