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As the Saigon government collapsed in 1975, the U.S. military evacuated more than 100,000 Vietnamese to the United States. Framed by congressional distrust of military action, the shift to the All-Volunteer Force, and the integration of women into the armed forces, this refugee operation marked a turning point in how the U.S. military perceived humanitarian operations. "Military" and "humanitarian" work co-existed in an uneasy balance, yet over time, operations that might be seen as routine, or even feminized, gained political value. Defining the 1975 Vietnamese evacuation as humanitarian thus became a telling precedent in the military's growing scope of operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that U.S. occupations in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Haiti in the first third of the twentieth century lasted as long as they did for political reasons. U.S. military commanders disagreed with civilians in the State Department partly because of a lack of both policy guidance and interdepartmental coordination. In addition, State grew more sensitive than Navy to negative public opinion both foreign and domestic and to national political strategy. Marines, meanwhile, were more driven to reform the societies they occupied but also less sensitive to their own abuses, to changing norms, and to geopolitical reasons for ending occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses what the author refers to as the Vietnam Trilogy of films and documentaries that featured U.S. actor John Wayne. It examines Wayne's roles in the films "A Nation Builds under Fire," "The Green Berets," and "No Substitute For Victory." According to the article, Wayne teamed with the U.S. Armed Forces in such films in order to support U.S. efforts during the Vietnam War. The article discusses Wayne's acting in movies portraying the U.S. frontier, his association with the U.S. government, and the concept of neoliberalism in the Vietnam Trilogy.

The article discusses aspects of the U.S. National Security Council Report 68 (NSC 68), which urged a massive increase in defense budget and implied within its text the rearmament of Europe, and the role of Policy Planning Staff director Paul Nitze and Secretary of State Dean Acheson in the production of the report on April 7, 1950. Topics include historians' view that the report expressed continuity with previous policies, the detection of the Soviet Union atomic detonation, and the writing of NSC 68 under Nitze's supervision and the policy debates that came along with it.

This article contributes to the growing oral history literature on intersubjectivity using a case study of interviews with Japanese and American people in Yokosuka, Japan, who had witnessed or participated in prostitution activities near the US Navy base during the occupation of Japan (1945-1952). In particular, it focuses on how the author, a young female Japanese transnational interviewer, consciously chose to present herself to interviewees so as to capture their views on the 'sensitive' topic of prostitution, as well as how the interviewees perceived and responded to her. Furthermore, the case study demonstrates that the interviewees' perception of her sexuality was critical to the way in which their narratives were embedded in the complex culture of this neocolonial military occupied space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisiting the political and social history of Seoul, Korea, in 1945, this article assesses responses to Japanese defeat and the end of empire in the context of American military occupation. The arrival of the Americans forced Japanese and Koreans alike to rethink their positions in the world. Drawing on past colonial practices, Japanese residents used the immediate post-surrender moment to ponder their future prospects, recording those thoughts in a number of public and private sources. They negotiated the passage from a colonial to a post-imperial society, I argue, by embracing a consciousness of a defeated people while disregarding criticisms of colonial rule. This investigation seeks to interpret the immediate post-World War II moment in Seoul less as a founding moment of the Cold War and more as an important transition in the history of decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the relationship between American journalists and former Australian Prime Minister John Curtin during World War II, focusing on how Curtin's interactions with the press influenced U.S. politics. Other topics include the basing of U.S. troops in Brisbane, Australia, Curtin's refusal to assist Allied troops in Burma, and an analysis of Curtin's diaries, briefings, and newsreels to show how he helped create positive news coverage from American journalists.

The article focuses on the AEF, entry into WW1; its impact on the allies and revisionist histories of John Pershing's leadership and the outcome of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the Vietnam War Era, gender functioned as the terrain upon which many Chicanos struggled to adjust to life in the military and make sense of the Vietnam War. Utilizing interviews with Chicano servicemen and the theoretical insights of critical men's studies, this article interrogates the conventional notions of masculinity often associated with military service and machismo and reveals a range of masculine identities and behaviors, both gay and straight, that existed during the Vietnam Era. Through military service, many Chicanos crafted their own definitions of manhood, despite the existence of hegemonic ideals within the larger Chicano/a community and the US military. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the local response to the arrival of American sailors of the U.S. Navy during World War I in the city of Cork, Ireland. The Americans were reported to have large sums of available money compared to local Irish men, and while on leave, were often observed spending time with Irish girls. Local response to a perceived increase in prostitution, with a rise in the incidence of venereal diseases and pregnancy, helped encourage local vigilance activities to thwart efforts of young Irish women from spending time with the Americans. Other topics include the street violence of September 1917 and March 1918, military-civil relations, the Republican movement, and the Catholic Church's reaction to Irish women socializing with American sailors.

During the early Cold War, no part of the Arctic was as important to the United States' strategic interests as Greenland: situated on the shortest straight-line route between the industrial centers of the two superpowers, Greenland was integral to North American continental security. The US desire to control Greenland, however, was complicated by the island's isolated geography, harsh climate and barren landscape. Between 1948 and 1966, US forces in Greenland were entrenched in the 'other cold war': the struggle with the ice sheet environment which threatened to impede American capabilities in the region. This paper explores the 'other cold war' through two case studies: US scientific efforts to understand and cope with polar whiteouts and the plastic deformation of ice. These case studies illuminate a struggle between two philosophical approaches to nature: a brash, aggressive approach which aimed to conquer the Greenland environment, and a more nuanced approach which aimed to collaborate with that environment. I show that the second approach won out as Greenland's exceptional geography and environment forced the US military to reassess its relationship with nature: rather than striving for control over the island space, US military personnel ultimately chose strategic cooperation with that space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This year marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of the D-Day invasion, when Allied forces crossed the English Channel and established beachheads along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast in northern France. Troops overcame stiff resistance and systematically moved inland, liberating Northern Europe and forcing the surrender of Germany and the end of World War II in that part of the world. The D-Day invasion took place on June 6, 1944, but its planning began more than two years earlier. This case studies the strategic planning that led up to the invasion. The Operations Division of the War Department General Staff, formerly known as the War Plans Division, was the principal staff agency of the U.S. Army high command during World War II. The story focuses on the Operations Division's role in formulating a strategic plan for ending the war as well as Operation BOLERO—the American military troop buildup in Great Britain that preceded the cross-channel invasion. By reprinting this case from the original U.S. Army historical record, PAR pays tribute to the brave men and women who planned and executed this bold maneuver, many of whom paid the ultimate price to achieve victory and restore freedom. Popularized as the “Greatest Generation,” they were ordinary people who answered the call of public service with extraordinary bravery and sacrifice. Members of the modern-day public administration community proudly stand on their shoulders. This chapter-length excerpt is taken from Ray S. Cline, Washington Command Post: The Operations Division (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1951), chapter IX, “Case History: Drafting the BOLERO Plan,” pp. 143–63. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cohort perspective contrasting four historical generations of American men reveals sharp differences in the extent to which each generation served on active military duty, in the share of that service that occurred during wartime and in the battlefield ages from seventeen to twenty-four, in the resulting rates of combat-related deaths, and in certain features of selectivity with respect to military service—chiefly education. Service data from Defense Department sources combined with population data from computerized census files produce these military profiles of the Hard Timers, Good Warriors, Lucky Few, and Baby Boomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author commends Doctor Hills's analysis but faults her conclusion that America's involvement in Iraq is essentially different from that in Vietnam. After acknowledging six obvious differences, he goes on to enumerate crucial similarities: three in conflict origin, seven in geopolitical situation, seven in American military characteristics, and two in American national ethos. While praising the courage and skill of American military forces on the ground, he examines past and current strategic theories for countering insurgency and casts doubt on the ability of American forces as presently constituted and employed to succeed, He concludes that the current presidential administration, faced with this situation, is likely to maintain a pretense of success as long as possible and then "bail out" of the conflict, with potentially disastrous consequences for both Middle Eastern stability and American civil-military relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the efforts of the United States to envision the role of its military as a democratic military, during World War II, while referencing the film `Sergeant York,' which premiered at the Astor Theatre in New York in July 1941. Examination of the relationship between the military and democracy during the war; Development of a military classification system by the army during the war; Reference to the book `The Soldier's Handbook,' produced by the army in 1940.