American War Research Articles

The Echo of Revolution: The Influence of War on Benjamin Rush’s Medical Theory

ABSTRACT During the American War for independence, young and ambitious medical men entered the ranks of the Continental Army. Philadelphia physician and chemistry professor Benjamin Rush was one such American practitioner who went on after the conflict to argue for a uniquely American medical practice. However, Rush’s wartime experiences have largely been treated in a vacuum with little connection to his later medical work. Despite this disconnect, much of Rush’s own writing and teaching directly or indirectly is pulled from wartime experiences. His interpretation of those experiences changed from a means of supporting British medical ideas in the 1770s to challenging them in the 1800s. This change mirrors and engages with other changes in American identity and use of science to craft that identity in the wake of the Revolutionary War.

The ‘Prince Royal of Denmark’s Yacht’: A career in royal, naval and whaling service, 1785–1837

Following the French Revolutionary, American and Napoleonic wars between 1793 and 1815, many smaller British warships were sold to merchant ship owners directly or to shipyards for breaking or resale. Identifying changes from naval to commercial employment is not always straightforward and the availability or accuracy of a vessel’s history not always assured. One yacht built at Deptford in 1785 with Danish royal connections and then a British naval career presents such questions. Sold out of naval service in 1818, ostensibly for breaking, it is argued that the former yacht was not broken up but rebuilt and resold to become a whaleship from 1820 to about 1837. The vessel provides an unusual case study of a transition from royal to naval service and then into mercantile employment.

Apocalypse Now Final Cut: The French Plantation Is Back. Vive le Cinéma!

The paper analyzes the recovery of the French Plantation sequence in the films Apocalypse Now, Final Cut, and Coppola, recovering the movie’s entire narrative and aesthetic capacity. We demonstrate how Coppola, obeying distribution norms and standard marketing devices, suppresses the sequence, producing a film like all the others. Coppola recovered the narrative of the French Plantation in dialogue with Schoendoerffer’s nostalgic cinema, masterfully adapting Conrad’s work, Heart of Darkness. The description of the French and American wars in the paper provides the background, allowing us to understand why there is a French plantation in Vietnam and why the United States entered the conflict in Southeast Asia. The recovery of the sequence describes French colonization in the era of imperialism, producing commodities such as rubber in plantations—places where the planters put down their roots—the plantation becomes property, existential justification, homeland, and source of memory. Defeated in Dien Bien Phu, the French do not abandon Vietnam and their memories, transforming them into nostalgic ghosts shrouded in the mists of history. The French Plantation restored in Apocalypse Now, Final Cut, gives the film the status of a work of art, ceasing to be a confusing work about an absurd and unfortunate war.

An Integrated Framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis and Multi-level View with an Application to Metaphors for the Vietnam War

Since Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) was introduced, methods of studying conceptual metaphor have kept improving to respond to methodological criticisms. Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) proposed by Charteris-Black (2004) has been considered as a “thought-provoking contribution” to metaphor analysis (Deignan, 2005) when approaching metaphor from various perspectives: critical discourse analysis, corpus analysis, pragmatics and cognitive linguistics. CMA is originally applied to one conceptual level in metaphor – domain. However, this paper argues that CMA can be exploited at four conceptual levels in Multi-level View of conceptual metaphor (Kövecses, 2017b) - image schema, domain, frame, and mental space. The combined framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis – CMA (Charteris-Black, 2004) and Multi-level View of conceptual metaphor – MLV (Kövecses, 2017b) can gain deeper insights into ideologies motivating metaphorical concepts for the Vietnam war as well as elucidate the conceptual structure of metaphor via the four levels. Hence, this combination fills the gap of lacking a framework with optimal balance of semantic, pragmatic, cognitive and critical dimensions. It also features the intriguing relationship between ideologies and conceptual structure, i.e., ideologies are embedded in all the four conceptual levels and systematically develop with increasing specificity from image schema to domain, frame and mental space. The focus of this paper is on our argument for an integrated framework of conceptual metaphor and the newspaper articles written by American war correspondents during the Vietnam war are used for illustration of how the integrated framework can help us better understand the conceptual metaphors in the articles.

The American War in Vietnam: Oral Histories

Abstract: The essay explores the complex realities of the Vietnam War from two perspectives: one is a U.S. Marine Corps correspondent, and the other is an underground operative for a South Vietnamese revolutionary group. Max Belcher, the marine, tells the story of his service, the civil unrest in the United States, and the solidarity of soldiers in the field during an unpopular war. Nguyễn Thị Năm Thanh speaks about her experiences as a female revolutionary in South Vietnam and her arrest and imprisonment.

Deviant Cohesion and Unauthorized Atrocities: Evidence from the American War in Vietnam

Why do soldiers engage in unauthorized atrocities? This article explores this question by analyzing the use of postmortem mutilation by American soldiers during the Vietnam War. I show that such acts were remarkably frequent, despite being explicitly prohibited by military policy, and argue that individual-level variation in participation in such violence is explained by social dynamics within military units. Soldiers used mutilation mostly as a means of avenging enemy atrocities or deaths among comrades. Revenge motives were stronger when soldiers shared particularly strong social bonds. Whether these motives resulted in unauthorized atrocity, however, depended on the extent to which discipline was maintained within military units. In units characterized by “deviant cohesion”—strong social ties and weak discipline—informal combatant norms diverged from organizational policies and promoted unauthorized atrocities as a unit-level practice. Evidence for this theory comes from a combination of archival sources and survey data gathered from a representative sample of Vietnam War veterans. A case study of a single Army unit illustrates the mechanism implied by the theory.

The Separation of Church and State as an Imperial Project in the Philippines during the Early American Colonial Period

This paper examines the separation of church and state in the Philippines during the early American colonial period, contextualizing it within the process of American overseas expansion and considering it as one of the projects of imperial hegemony construction. After the Spanish–American War, the United States substituted Spain as the new colonial ruler of the Philippines, legitimizing its regime as the spread of ‘civilization’ to the Filipinos. On this basis, the Americans enacted laws guaranteeing religious freedom and introduced an American-style institution dealing with church–state relations. Beyond the legal and administrative initiatives, the new regime also constructed an official narrative of the transformation of political–religious relations in the Philippine that emphasized the absolute ‘difference’ between the American human rights principle, which guaranteed freedom of worship, and the Spanish theocracy, which was dedicated to the consolidation of privileges. By legislating the separation of church and state, buying up church properties, recognizing the equality of denominations, and constructing the official imperial narrative of church–state relations, the Americans hoped to ‘teach’ Filipinos that the ‘true’ belief was rooted in the inner convictions of individual Christians, not in the authority and coercion of the hierarchical church. By disciplining the construction of ‘difference’ under tutelary colonialism, the separation of church and state movement initiated by the American colonial government in the Philippines became an important source of imperial self-endowed legitimacy.

The Role of the Army Medical Corps (MC) in the Caribbean Campaign of the Spanish American War.

The 5th Army Medical Corps Caribbean campaigns provided valuable lessons on the noncombat hazards to troops and the challenges to the provision of care in a tropical theater of operations. The Army quickly adapted the lessons learnt for the invasion in Puerto Rico and future overseas expeditions.

Amex: Discord and Unity in the Canadian Vietnam-Era Anti-Draft Movement, 1969-1971

During the American Vietnam War of the 1960s and early 1970s, a movement dedicated to opposing the draft and assisting both draft dodgers and deserters emerged within Canada, where many of these war resisters immigrated. Exile groups were organizations in the anti-draft movement consisting entirely of American war resisters. One prominent exile newsletter was Amex: The American Expatriate in Canada. Amex’s reactions to events in the Canadian antidraft movement during its second volume (1969–1971) demonstrate how despite frequently criticizing other organizations and individuals within the movement, it ultimately advocated for unity. The newsletter's views on discord and unity within the anti-draft movement are representative of the larger movement’s success in maintaining cohesion despite disputes.

The Gulf War in Saudi Fiction

Abstract There exists only limited scholarship on Saudi novelists as producers of war literature. Research into Saudi fiction has focused on the questions of its historical development, universality, women’s writing, and the reluctance of earlier writers to negotiate socio-political and psychological dimensions compared with the candidness and boldness of contemporary writers portraying these taboo subjects and daring to investigate unexplored regions of human consciousness. This article, however, diverges, using select novels to critique fictional treatment of the Gulf War by Saudi writers. Two prominent American war novels will be used as reference points through which to determine the similarities and differences between the Saudi war novel and its American counterpart. Putting Saudi novels that deal with the theme of war on a par with some American literature that has the same focus aims to uncover patterns of similarity and highlight differences. The goal is ultimately to show how Saudi fiction saw the war while establishing a war narrative that lends the story coherence and meaning.

Fighting for Oxford and Cambridge: National Security and Imperial Ambition in the ‘Transition of Power’

ABSTRACT This article uses the rise of the doctrine of ‘national security’ in US statecraft and strategy to re-examine Brian McKercher’s work on the ‘transition of power’ from Britain to the United States. World War II marked the great watershed in American foreign relations, in particular the ability, and more specifically the willingness, of Americans to project power beyond the western hemisphere. Not coincidentally, the war also marked another crucial turning point in American war and diplomacy: the transition from concepts like ‘national self-defence’ and ‘the national interest’ to a strategic doctrine that blended the blunt necessity of defence with the capacious ambition of interests. This new doctrine of ‘national security’ conceived of self-defence in a new way, not just as the protection of territorial sovereignty but as the protection of values, morals, and political norms. This much more capacious idea of defence was designed to be the bastion of a new liberal order to safeguard Western civilisation. In this light, American internationalists conceived of US power as the rightful heir to the mandate of the British Empire, albeit in ways that privileged command of the global commons over direct control of foreign territory. This article investigates the construction of ‘national security’ and the nature of Anglo-American empire in a new light.

The American War of Independence as Reflected in Polish Textbooks in 20th and 21st Century

Resumen La literatura académica en Polonia todavía no ha intentado mostrar las maneras en que la Guerra de Independencia americana se ha reflejado en los libros de texto de este país, y este artículo no pretende ser exhaustivo. La autora, abordando este tema, ha llevado su análisis al tema de la Revolución americana de los años 1775 a 1783. Examina así los acontecimientos retratados en los textos polacos de los siglos XX y XXI a través del prisma de las trasformaciones de la propia historiografía polaca. El tema de la Revolución americana tiene gran significación en la política educativa de este país. Los asuntos sensibles incluyen el problema de la esclavitud, además del tema de la Constitución, entendida como la pieza más importante de la legislación y logro de la Revolución. Atendiendo a los manuales de texto escolares es bastante evidente que la mirada de los estudiantes ha sido dirigida durante décadas a tres héroes: George Washington, Casimir Pulaski y Tadeusz Kosciuszko. En el artículo también se estudia la participación de representantes de países europeos en la Revolución americana y la actualización de su panteón. Palabras claves Revolución americana, manuales de texto de historia, historiografía polaca, sistema educativo.

Towards what new world order?

This article investigates the disintegration of post-Cold War American hegemony and its implications for world order. To this end, it analyzes how financial crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geostrategic changes accelerated this fragmentation and, proposes that such disintegration could result in both a new Cold War and a fairer multipolar order. It is concluded that the new order must focus on global issues such as environmental preservation and socioeconomic development, highlighting the need for international cooperation to face future challenges.

Unheard voices: foreign journalists’ coverage of Vietnamese prisoners during the American War in Vietnam

ABSTRACT This article examines how foreign journalists covered the Vietnam War by focusing on how they reported on the treatment of Vietnamese detainees. As transnational actors, reporters created sources that linked the local conflict in Southeast Asia to perceptions in the wider world. Unlike the coverage of the My Lai massacre, the many reports on the fate of Vietnamese prisoners had no serious impact on public attitudes or Congressional appropriations. By providing a classification of the various acts of violence covered, this article highlights the discrepancies between the prevailing official narratives and what reporters actually witnessed in the jungles of Vietnam.

“Making Democracy Safe for the World”: Kenneth Waltz on Realism, Democracy, and War

Abstract This paper reevaluates the history of how some anti-war realists have assessed the relationship between democracy and armed conflict. To do so, I turn to a central realist figure: Kenneth Waltz. Drawing on newly available archival sources and his published work, I explore Waltz’s shifting relationship with American democracy, foreign policymaking, and war. I focus on his career-long anti-war commitments, tracing his foreign policy engagements over the half century of his academic career. Early on, Waltz argued in favor of American democracy as a source of adaptive, effective foreign policy. Gradually, however, his views shifted. After the Cold War and especially after 9/11, his anti-war beliefs and belief in democratic foreign policymaking came increasingly into tension. He moved from defending American democratic foreign policymaking to calling for structural constraints from without. We see this in Waltz’s late-life endorsement of the Iranian nuclear program, which was motivated not just by his well-known optimism about proliferation, but also by the hope that an Iranian nuclear arsenal would deter American intervention in the Middle East. Waltz’s experience has implications both for how we read his body of work and for how we understand realist attempts to shape foreign policy.

Montgomery Ward's Export Department: international orders and mail-order consumers in Latin America, 1890-1930

New primary source material documents the expansion of Montgomery Ward’s mail order through their export department to Latin American consumers from the end of the Spanish American War in 1898 to ca.1930, and the formative period of export advertising and mail order marketing for the first time. Chicago was the center of mail order and ready-made clothing; women’s ready-made suits provide a case study of merchandise. A Chicago clothier requested a U.S. State Department inquiry to study the viability of introducing American ready-made clothing in Latin America in 1899. This Government study provides significant details about ready-made clothing in Latin America previously unknown to scholars. U.S. mail order required international parcel post for growth, and a Ward employee championed its passage in 1919. New primary sources have been contextualized within the frameworks of business, advertising, postal, and dress history and political economy. Advances in export advertising led to growth, which has been traced using statistics from trade journals and an internal document about the history of the export department. The essay ends by examining the names and addresses of Latin American consumers from extant Montgomery Ward return envelopes that have been digitally mapped and interpreted. Latin American consumption theory will be examined apropos of consumers and the meaning of mail order goods.

Rendering the ‘orphaned’ dead palpable

Following the end of the Vietnam–American War in 1975, the commemoration of the fallen soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) remains a difficult issue. The post-war Vietnamese state has marginalised ARVN dead from its national commemorative practices, while it has destroyed or neglected former South Vietnam memorial sites. This article provides an examination of recent efforts by local ARVN former combatants, living relatives of fallen soldiers and young Vietnamese to attend to the upkeep of the former ARVN cemetery in southern Vietnam. Based on participant observation and interviews, I explore how people care for the dead through regular acts of grave maintenance and religious rituals. I show that, through these persistent practices of care, southern Vietnamese engage in a form of memory activism to ensure the continual existence of the cemetery and lay claims to the right to mourn for the marginalised dead.

“Put money in thy purse. Follow thou the wars”: Othello, the Mexican–American War, and Manifest Destiny

In the winter of 1845–6 the United States Army languished on the border waiting for an opportunity to provoke what would be the Mexican–American War, or, as the Mexicans would come to call it, La Intervención Americana. To break the dull monotony, the army turned to theatre. In January, Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant was cast as Desdemona in a production staged for the troops and the local community. Grant would later be the victorious general in the Civil War and the eighteenth president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. He was not yet that person. In 1846 he was a twenty-four-year-old, newly commissioned officer, only three years out of the US Military Academy. His peers, a cohort of junior officers who would become the senior military leadership on both sides of the Civil War, were also actors in the production, as well as its producers. The anecdote is humorous in large part because the Grant of national record and memory is the least Desdemona-like figure anyone can conceive. It has been repeated multiple times across the nineteenth century and still holds in the imagination almost two hundred years later.

The Dual Role of Code-Switching in Alejandro Morales’s Reto en el paraíso

ABSTRACT Although most contemporary Chicano authors tend to write exclusively in one language, English or Spanish, they have a range of linguistic options available to them – as would any member of a bilingual community – including code-switching. Code-switching in US literature dates back to the Mexican–American War and has been employed to establish aesthetic or stylistic credibility and to communicate biculturalism or ethnic identity. This article examines the dual role of code-switching in Alejandro Morales’s only bilingual novel, Reto en el paraíso. It explores how code-switching serves as a narrative technique to develop character identity in a bilingual and bicultural context, while also performing some of the socio-pragmatic and communicative functions commonly attested in natural bilingual discourse. Morales’s linguistic choices exemplify how Chicano writers living between two cultures may, and often must, use both languages to depict accurately the intricate cultural and linguistic realities of their characters.

Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant

In 1854, U.S. Army Captain Ulysses S. Grant underwent a demoralizing stretch in his military career. Following his service in the Mexican American War, the Army transferred Grant to the isolated Fort Humboldt in northern California. Separated from his wife, Julia, and their two children, Grant suffered intense bouts of loneliness and occasionally turned to alcohol for reprieve. Grant’s drinking eventually bled into his work, and his superior officer forced his resignation after Grant arrived at a pay meeting hungover. He returned home in shame, and many, including his father Jesse, had lost faith in him. Few would have expected that, a mere ten years later, Grant would save the Union from political schism and become the first Lieutenant General of the U.S. Army since George Washington. For John Reeves, the decade between Grant’s resignation in 1854 and his accession to Lieutenant General in 1864 constituted the most critical juncture in Grant’s life, but scholars have not given these years adequate focus. Reeves’s book follows Grant’s life during this time and documents his family ties to both North and South, his multiple attempts to find a new career in antebellum civilian life, and his eventual reentry and redemption in the Union Army.