On July 26th, Gabrielle Westcott successfully defended her dissertation, “Struggling for the Soul and Mind of a President: How Emotions and Personality Shaped Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam Policy in 1968”. 

From the abstract: 

“In the summer of 1968, an irate President Lyndon B. Johnson lashed out at his senior foreign policy advisors, calling them “dupes” of a Soviet conspiracy to get him to stop bombing North Vietnam. His staffers reported that he grew “very pissed & emotional” in response to proposals for a bombing cessation because he believed stopping the bombing would endanger his sons-in-law, both of whom were serving in Vietnam. Johnson belittled and berated Vice President Hubert Humphrey for deviating from the administration’s position and sidelined Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford when he continued to advocate a cessation. LBJ’s personality and emotional outbursts set the parameters of foreign policy debates and his emotions surrounding events in his personal life shaped U.S. policy toward Vietnam. Behind the scenes, Johnson’s senior advisors waged a fierce battle for the “soul and mind” of the president. Conscious of the role emotions played in LBJ’s thinking, they crafted their policy proposals to appeal to his emotional state. The decision-making process quickly deteriorated. Filled with angry outbursts, private lamentations, and personal conflict, the final year of Johnson’s presidency illustrates how emotions and personality influence foreign policy.” 

Congratulations Dr. Gabrielle Westcott on her successful dissertation defense! 

Congratulations to Frances Martin who successfully defended her dissertation, “From the Ambassadors of Little Saigon: The Nation-Making and Grassroots Diplomacy of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States, 1975-1997″, on June 7th!

From her abstract: 

“Following the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam, many left Vietnam as refugees and resettled in the United States. However, for the Vietnamese refugees living in the United States, the formal dissolution of their nation-state did not sever their allegiance to their countrymen and the ties that bound them together as a nation. This dissertation examines how stateless individuals organized and advocated for themselves in the international system and replicated the functions of a nation through this activism. Using three Vietnamese refugee groups in the United States, The National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (The Front), The Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association (FVPPA), and Project Ngoc, this project examines how Vietnamese refugees in the United States reproduced different structures of a nation (the state, family, and civil society). The Front sought the overthrow of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the creation of an anti-communist Vietnam. In doing so it recreated the state structures of military and government in the Vietnamese refugee population in the United States. The FVPPA, by raising awareness of the issue of Vietnamese re-education camp prisoners and fighting for their release, immigration, and resettlement process, ensured the reestablishment of the Vietnamese family in the United States. Finally, Project Ngoc, a student activist organization through advocating for Vietnamese refugees and protesting the policy of forced repatriation, participated in and strengthened the civil society of the Vietnamese refugee population. These three organizations are examples of the way stateless peoples use their activism to protect themselves from international neglect and advance their agendas in the nation-state system.” 

Congratulations to Dr. Kathryn Angelica on her successful defense of her dissertation, “An Uneasy Alliance: Cooperation And Conflict In Nineteenth-Century Black And White Women’s Activism.”

From the abstract: “This project provides a new generational history of women’s activism by demonstrating how the activism(s) of white and Black women intersected and intervened from the 1830s to the turn of the century. It questions how, why, and to what effect white and Black women contributed to interracial organization in the nineteenth century to reveal how cooperation and conflict shaped campaigns for abolition and women’s rights. I argue that we must view the long durée of women’s activism through the lens of compounding generational change. Black women’s activism was inherently abolitionist and feminist. They maintained a commitment to Black uplift, equal opportunity, and community support that often placed them at odds with the goals of white women. Simultaneous to establishing organizations by and for women of color, they persistently entered unwelcoming and exclusionary spaces to demand white activists confront the experiences of African Americans, especially African American women and girls. Attempts to collaborate and communicate, often overlooked or ignored, nonetheless expanded the political and intellectual framework of interracial societies. Black women, in particular, adapted their approaches, forged local and interregional networks, and dedicated time to pass down their ideas and strategies to younger generations. They harnessed grassroots networks to further claims for abolition, suffrage, and unencumbered citizenship. Although the impact of Black women’s activism in this period was uncertain or fleeting, the incremental and compounding effect was the strengthening of activist strategies, mindsets, and networks that would facilitate transformative change in the early twentieth century.”