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Full-Text Articles in History

The Ladle And The Knife: Power Projection And Force Deployment Under Reagan, Mathew Kawecki Dec 2019

The Ladle And The Knife: Power Projection And Force Deployment Under Reagan, Mathew Kawecki

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis examines the nature and impact of the Reagan administration’s self-described projection of “peace through strength.” It argues that Reagan’s defense spending surge, “Star Wars” (SDI) missile shield policy, and 1983 invasion of Grenada gave the president confidence and political cover that allowed him to withdraw U.S. Marines from Beirut in early 1984. Analysts and commentators focus on his muscular power projection like defense spending, SDI, and the invasion of Grenada, but in practice Reagan exercised a high level of restraint in troop deployment. These projections of power and the avoidance of protracted war in Lebanon gave Reagan further …


Special Relationships: Anglo-American Latin America Policy And The Redefining Of National Security, 1969-1982, Benjamin Jared Pack Dec 2019

Special Relationships: Anglo-American Latin America Policy And The Redefining Of National Security, 1969-1982, Benjamin Jared Pack

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From 1969–82, the United States and Great Britain redefined national security in a distinctive way, separating the notion of national security from its traditional foundations in realist thought. The way the two powers come to define national security was the result of more than a century of historical interaction with Latin America and their own historical experience with ideology, imperialism, and colonialism. As such, the way the United States and Great Britain perceived their respective special relationships influenced the way they chose to intervene in matters of national security, particularly in Latin America’s Southern Cone countries of Chile and Argentina. …


The United States' Shifting Relationship With Taiwan Due To Cold War Influences, Hunter Pratt May 2019

The United States' Shifting Relationship With Taiwan Due To Cold War Influences, Hunter Pratt

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The struggle between the Kuomintang (KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPS) shaped the direction of future American-Chinese relations by seismically uprooting the dynamics between the two states amidst the backdrop of the Cold War. President Harry Truman and later President Dwight Eisenhower were responsible for shepherding the United States through this new period of crisis as the ideological debates of the 21st century were beginning to simplify into the East vs the West, communism vs. capitalism, and democracy vs. authoritarianism. China serves as one of the proto-battlefields of this ideological battle. Truman’s personal qualities, temperament, and beliefs influenced …


The Casualties Of U.S. Grand Strategy: Korean Exclusion From The San Francisco Peace Treaty And The Pacific Pact, Syrus Jin May 2019

The Casualties Of U.S. Grand Strategy: Korean Exclusion From The San Francisco Peace Treaty And The Pacific Pact, Syrus Jin

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

From August 1945 to September 1951, the United States had a unique opportunity to define and frame how it would approach its foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific region. As the dominant power in the Pacific after World War II and claiming direct authority over vanquished Japan, the United States had the liberty to design its own post-war vision for the entire region. Until 1951, American State Department diplomats and government planners, attempted—ultimately unsuccessfully—to harmonize the competing motivations of lingering World War II multilateralist idealism and Cold War geopolitics in a postcolonial, postwar world. This thesis examines U.S.-Korean relations in context …


Liberation By Emigration: Italian Communists, The Cold War, And West-East Migration From Venezia Giulia, 1945-1949, Luke Gramith Jan 2019

Liberation By Emigration: Italian Communists, The Cold War, And West-East Migration From Venezia Giulia, 1945-1949, Luke Gramith

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In the years after World War II, several thousand Italians from the Italo-Yugoslav borderlands emigrated eastward across the emerging Iron Curtain, hoping to start new and better lives in Communist Yugoslavia. This dissertation explores what these migrants hoped Communism would be and how the experiences of everyday life under the preceding Fascist dictatorship shaped these hopes. It suggests that these Italians envisioned Communist society as one purged of certain social categories—shopkeepers, foremen, and piecework clerks—who had become known as quintessential Fascists due to the way Fascism interwove itself with local power. Marxist doctrine played a relatively minor role in shaping …


Bondmania: Spy Films, American Foreign Policy, And The New Frontier Of The 1960s, Luke Pearsons Jan 2019

Bondmania: Spy Films, American Foreign Policy, And The New Frontier Of The 1960s, Luke Pearsons

All Master's Theses

The topic of this thesis are spy films that were produced during the Cold War, with a specific focus on the James Bond films and their numerous imitators. The goal is to explore why these films were popular, particularly during the decade of the 1960s, and how these films and characters were used to address a number of anxieties that faced the United States in this period. The character of James Bond in these films established the dominance of a particular character type and provided a sense of wish fulfillment for a certain segment of the audience. His presence asserted …


The Impact Of The Cold War And The Second Red Scare On The 1952 American Presidential Election, Dana C. Johns Jan 2019

The Impact Of The Cold War And The Second Red Scare On The 1952 American Presidential Election, Dana C. Johns

Online Theses and Dissertations

In the fall of 1952, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II faced off in a heated Presidential Election. The reputations of the two men followed them throughout the campaign cycle. Eisenhower was perceived as the General who defeated the Germans on the European front of WWII and was also skilled in managing the press. Stevenson was a relative unknown on the national stage, but was perceived as an intellectual who helped to reform the State Government of Illinois, becoming a favorite candidate of the Democratic Party. The fear of the spread of communism, the looming threat …