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Articles 1 - 19 of 19
Full-Text Articles in Political History
The Fall Of Public Opinion: The Tet Offensive, The Anti-War Movement, And The Media, 1963-1975, Taylor Ann Cusick
The Fall Of Public Opinion: The Tet Offensive, The Anti-War Movement, And The Media, 1963-1975, Taylor Ann Cusick
Electronic Theses & Dissertations
From 1963 to 1975, public opinion regarding the Vietnam War changed drastically. In the beginning, the public was largely on board with Americans going overseas to fight against the North Vietnamese military. Citizens felt the American military was doing what was necessary to secure democracy in a region where communism was spreading, and the public was not easily swayed by those who opposed the war. The media mirrored public opinion during the first years of the war. By 1968, support for the war declined dramatically, and the media’s portrayal of the conflict reversed. Newscasters began to argue that the risk …
Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis
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
“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
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
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."
An Eerie Jungle Filled With Dragonflies, Sniper Bullets And Ghosts: Changing Perceptions Of Vietnam And The Vietnamese Through The Eyes Of American Troops, Matthew M. Herrera
An Eerie Jungle Filled With Dragonflies, Sniper Bullets And Ghosts: Changing Perceptions Of Vietnam And The Vietnamese Through The Eyes Of American Troops, Matthew M. Herrera
Masters Theses
This thesis examines the changing perceptions of Vietnam’s landscape and the Vietnamese in the eyes of American troops throughout the Vietnam War. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Vietnamese were depicted as a people misguided by the French and in need of political mobilization by the American media and government. Following heavy investment and a rigged election in 1956, South Vietnam was painted as a beacon of democracy in Southeast Asia and an example of what American aid is capable of. As an increasing American military presence was being established in South Vietnam in the early 1960s, American …
Interview With Reverend Dr. Stan Davis, Dawn Butler
Interview With Reverend Dr. Stan Davis, Dawn Butler
Chicago 1968
Length: 116 minutes
Interview with Reverend Stan Davis by Dawn Butler
Rev. Davis begins by sharing details about himself, his family, and his early years in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and his religious community, the Church of the Brethren. He talks about growing up during World War II and how he first became aware of prejudice, witnessing the internment of the Japanese-American community. He recalls his studies at Juniata College and his decision to attend Bethany Theological. He describes moving to North Lawndale, a diverse immigrant community that underwent drastic demographic changes as a result of unscrupulous lending practices designed to move …
Interview With Reverend Dr. Michael Pfleger, Jesse Betend
Interview With Reverend Dr. Michael Pfleger, Jesse Betend
Chicago 1968
Length: 76 minutes
Interview with Reverend Michael Pfleger by Jesse Betend.
In his interview with Jesse Betend, Reverend Michael Pfleger discusses his life leading up to his involvement with the Civil Rights Movement in 1968. He recalls how his childhood and early experiences affected his later work, his religious yet very progressively outspoken family and attending a highly diverse high school (Quigley Preparatory Seminary South). He recalls his first exposures to racism and segregation through family friends, classmates, and work with Native American and Black communities. He describes the violence perpetrated by his own community during a speech by Dr. …
Westmoreland’S War: Reassessing American Strategy In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis
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
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 …
Review Of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis
Review Of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis
History Faculty Articles and Research
A review of Nick Turse's Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam.
Eating Soup With A Spoon: The U.S. Army As A "Learning Organization" In The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis
Eating Soup With A Spoon: The U.S. Army As A "Learning Organization" In The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis
History Faculty Articles and Research
Standard Vietnam War narratives often argue that the U.S. Army lost the war because it failed to learn and adapt to the conditions of an unconventional conflict. Based on a reappraisal of learning processes rather than on the outcome of the war, this essay argues that as an organization, the U.S. Army did learn and adapt in Vietnam; however, that learning was not sufficient, in itself, to preserve a South Vietnam in the throes of a powerful nationalist upheaval. A reexamination of the Army's strategic approach, operational experiences, and organizational changes reveals that significant learning did occur during the Vietnam …
On Lewis Sorley's Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis
On Lewis Sorley's Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis
History Faculty Articles and Research
A review of Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, by Lewis Sorley.
No Sure Victory: Measuring U.S. Army Effectiveness And Progress In The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis
No Sure Victory: Measuring U.S. Army Effectiveness And Progress In The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis
History Faculty Books and Book Chapters
Conventional wisdom holds that the US Army in Vietnam, thrust into an unconventional war where occupying terrain was a meaningless measure of success, depended on body counts as its sole measure of military progress. In No Sure Victory, Army officer and historian Gregory Daddis looks far deeper into the Army's techniques for measuring military success and presents a much more complicated-and disturbing-account of the American misadventure in Indochina.
Review Of A Question Of Command: Counterinsurgency From The Civil War To Iraq, Gregory A. Daddis
Review Of A Question Of Command: Counterinsurgency From The Civil War To Iraq, Gregory A. Daddis
History Faculty Articles and Research
A review of A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq, by Mark Moyar.
Interview With Carol Thompson, Marcia Monaco
Interview With Carol Thompson, Marcia Monaco
Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement
Length: 91 minutes
Oral history interview of Carol Thompson by Marcia Monaco
In this interview, Carol Thompson recalls her involvement and work in the anti-apartheid movement. She explains that her awareness of the anti-Apartheid movement began while at Northern Illinois University, but she first became involved after she moved to Chicago, when she met South African author, Donald Woods, which led to her involvement in the Dennis Brutus’ defense committee. She recalls that she initially worked with Clergy and Laity Concerned and later, alongside Prexy Nesbitt, became a founding member of CIDSA, which was committed to passing legislation in Chicago …
Review Of The Battle Of An Loc, Gregory A. Daddis
Review Of The Battle Of An Loc, Gregory A. Daddis
History Faculty Articles and Research
A review of The Battle of An Loc, by James H. Willbanks.
Ms-036: Radical Pamphlets, 1965 – 1975, Christine M. Ameduri
Ms-036: Radical Pamphlets, 1965 – 1975, Christine M. Ameduri
All Finding Aids
This collection is divided into two sections. Radical Pamphlets, consists of pamphlets on broad topics such as labor, communism, ecology, poverty, racism and women’s rights. The second series is the Peace Movement and consists of pamphlets, papers, newspaper clippings and correspondence dealing with the Vietnam Conflict and Peace Movement in the United States compiled by David Mozes, a friend of Scott, Nancy and Jim Scott, and Michael J. Hobor, Class of 1969.
Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each …
Student Power, Rowan Cahill
Student Power, Rowan Cahill
Rowan Cahill
Contemporary account by a participant-observer of the upsurge in 1968 of student activism on Australian university campuses, with particular emphasis on the concepts of 'student power' and 'democratisation'. The article is both a background piece, and a critique of the Australian university system and its operation at the time.