In 1955, the New Zealand Government authorised the creation of a Special Forces unit to operate with British counterparts in Malaya to defeat a communist-inspired guerrilla insurgency. Between 1956 and 1971 elements of the New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) were deployed on active service four times. These operational deployments included periods of time in Malaya, Thailand, Borneo and South Vietnam. The research illustrates the chronological progression of the New Zealand SAS through two of its most influential active service campaigns by examining how commitments to the Borneo ‘Confrontation’ in 1965 and 1966 directly and indirectly influenced the deployment to South Vietnam between December 1968 and February 1971. The mission of the New Zealand SAS in South Vietnam was to ‘assist in providing long range reconnaissance patrols’ that would support the larger infantry elements in defeating the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army enemy. New Zealand SAS soldiers participated in 169 Australian SAS patrols in South Vietnam. Of those, 137 were commanded by the New Zealanders themselves. The research describes what the New Zealand SAS encountered during nearly two and a half years in South Vietnam; from the tactical intensity associated with small five-man patrols often observing or contacting much larger enemy formations, to the uncompromising professional standards that were expected of all members regardless of situation or circumstances and the influences of experienced Patrol Commanders, and the frustrations and inflexibility which characterised the relationship with their Australian counterparts. The research also further examines the underlying issue of overall strategic success and value of a small nationally-identifiable and strongly independent military unit that was compelled to operate under the command of larger Special Forces coalition counterparts and the impact different political, doctrinal, tactical cultural and cognitive characteristics had on these joint-operational deployments. The size of the New Zealand SAS contribution to the Australian SAS Squadron combined with the command arrangements placed upon it, also dictated that the deployments were never likely to be able to exert influence in any ‘independent’ or nationally-identifiable sense, and the relationships, the types of patrol operations conducted, and the value of these operations, would ultimately see many New Zealand SAS veterans largely dissatisfied with the overall performance of the deployment. Nevertheless, the strength of New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam came from its practical application of unique New Zealand Special Forces methodology and field-craft which had been fundamentally shaped and developed in Borneo. The New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam and Borneo - the demonstration of the highest standards of patrol techniques, tracking, reconnaissance, ambushing and fire discipline, and above all, operational professionalism that has been the hallmark of New Zealand's military history – provided the evolutionary ‘platforms’ from which today’s highly skilled and enviable New Zealand Special Forces have emerged.

Thesis (M. of Military Art and Science)--U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2007. / The original document contains color images. Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on May 27, 2008). Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (Master of Military Art and Science)-Army Command and General Staff College, 2007. / Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Jan 12, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

This diplomatic and military history offers a new interpretation of the origins of the three fighting fronts during the final phase of the Cold War in Angola, Central America, and Afghanistan. Vaguely remembered today as proxy wars on the periphery, in fact, these were protracted revolutionary civil wars and regional contests for the balance of power in which millions died, while at the same time they were central to global superpower confrontation. Analysis focuses on the strategy and policy of the United States. The chronology from 1975 to 1982 covers the Ford administration's covert action intervention in the Angolan Civil War, which came to grief at the hands of Cuban troops; Jimmy Carter's effort to conduct foreign policy based on principles, which ran foul of power considerations in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Afghanistan; and Ronald Reagan's embrace of these wars early in his first term as part of the revival of U.S. strength in its competition with the Soviet Union. The principal argument is that, while generally undervalued as controversial small wars of dubious significance, these wars were in fact integral to U.S. experience of limited war during the Cold War following victory in World War II. In strategic terms, the main conclusion is that the U.S. restricted itself to conducting economy of force contingency operations in Angola, Central America, and Afghanistan as a result of its costly struggles in Korea and Vietnam. Despite declaring these peripheral wars to be central to the Cold War, avoiding the costs of involving U.S forces directly in Third World conflicts and minimizing the risks of escalation with the Soviet Union were overriding political and military imperatives.

La guerre de Succession d'Espagne, dernière guerre du règne de Louis XIV, est marquée par une série de défaites retentissantes : Blenheim (1704, Bavière), Ramillies et Turin (1706, Brabant et Piémont), Audenarde (1708, Flandre). L’approche qualifiée de « nouvelle histoire-bataille » permet de relativiser la vision traditionnelle qui explique ces défaites par le talent supérieur de John Churchill, duc de Marlborough, et du prince Eugène de Savoie, affrontant des généraux français courtisans et incompétents. Cette approche met l’événement-bataille au centre de l’étude et en aborde tous les aspects : dimensions politique, stratégique et tactique ; logistique ; techniques du combat et expériences ressenties sur le champ de bataille ; onde de choc.On constate que la guerre au début du XVIIIe siècle est à bien des égards limitée : les armées dépendent de leurs sources d’approvisionnement. Eugène et Marlborough, par leur audace et leur talent, accélèrent le rythme des opérations, mais sans renverser cet état de fait : aucune bataille n’est individuellement « décisive » et la guerre de Succession d'Espagne reste une guerre d’attrition. Les batailles sont le lieu d’une expérience du combat singulière, où se voient portées à leur paroxysme l’ensemble des formes d’affrontement et de violence que comporte la guerre de l’époque. Enfin, l’image d’une bataille se dégage lentement. Les courtisans doivent comparer nouvelles officielles, correspondances privées et gazettes pour comprendre ce qui s’est passé. Le roi mène des enquêtes pour déterminer qui a bien agi et qui a démérité. En définitive, c’est aux écrivains et aux artistes de fixer l’image que la postérité aura de ces batailles. / The war of the Spanish Succession is the last war fought by Louis XIV. It begins with a succession of astonishing defeats: Blenheim (Bavaria, 1704), Ramillies and Turin (Brabant and Piedmont, 1706), Audenarde (Flanders, 1708). The method known as “new battle-history” lets us temper the traditional vision, which claims that French have been defeated because their armies where led by courtiers that faced two military geniuses: John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugene of Savoy. This historiographic approach focuses on the battle as an event, and seeks to treat it in all its dimensions: political, strategic and tactical aspects; logistics; how soldiers fight and what they feel; shock wave.Early eighteenth-century warfare is in many ways limited: armies highly rely on their supply sources. Eugene and Marlborough, thanks to their audacity and their talent, are able to speed up the operations, but without changing the way war is fought. There is no single “decisive” battle: the war of the Spanish Succession remains as a war of attrition. Battles are rare and formidable events where a singular fighting experience takes place; all contemporary kinds of combat and violence are to be observed. The importance of a battle is not immediately obvious. Its image takes time to come out. Versailles’ courtiers need to compare official news, private letters, French or foreign gazettes, in order to understand what happened. The king conducts investigations to identify the generals and units that have served well, and those that have not. In the end, it is writers and artists who are in charge of fixing what image of these battles will be left for posterity.

This thesis shall identify the date origin of the composite bow within Mesopotamia and Elam. and both identify and quantify the design factors which lead to increased performance possible with composite construction. To accomplish this, the thesis begins by summarizing the problems and flaws that currently exist in the field of history as it applies specifically to archery and bow use. With problems identified, the thesis will then introduce the reader to the basics of bow mechanics, thereby laying the basis for physical testing. This in turn will empirically demonstrate flaws in the current iconographical method of bow identification. The thesis will then devise a new method for iconographic identification of composite construction that has greater proven accuracy, based upon proportional length, which will link extant artifacts with both physical test results and iconographic evidence. The reader shall then be led through a complete reevaluation of iconographical evidence for Mesopotamia and Elam starting at the beginning of the second millennium BCE and working backwards using this new method of iconographic evaluation to determine the point at which composite bow technology first appears in the ancient Near East. The thesis will finish with an overview of the above accomplishments and their potential impact on the study of ancient and military history. / Classics and World Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Classical Studies)

This study examines the five American Legion battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force formed in 1915 specifically to recruit American volunteers for the Canadian overseas contingent of the First World War. This study reviews the organization of Canada's militia and Anglo-American relations before examining the formation of the American Legion, the background of its men, and the diplomatic repercussions it sparked. This study is based largely on material in the Public Archives of Canada including war records and the personal papers of several participants. During its brief existence, the American Legion precipitated constitutional, diplomatic, and political problems. The issues the American Legion raised were mostly solved by America's entry in the war. The episode hastened the maturity of Canada as a nation.

This thesis analyzes the editorial content of a popular regional newspaper from the Shenandoah Valley, the Spirit of Jefferson, during the height of the Civil-War Era (1848-1870). The newspaper’s editor during most of the period, Benjamin F. Beall, was a white, southern slaveholder of humble origins, who spent time serving in the Confederate military. Beall, however, had also quickly established himself as one of the preeminent Democrats in his home county of Jefferson, as well as both the Shenandoah Valley and the new state of West Virginia. Beall firmly believed in the institution of racial slavery and fought to preserve that institution. Yet, not all of Beall’s white neighbors decided that secession was an appropriate idea worth pursuing. Typical of other areas in the Upper South, these unionists existed in large numbers due to the survival of a strong, two-party political system built from an increasingly diversifying local economy. These white unionists shared a complicated relationship with local blacks, who also sought to defeat the Confederacy in order to claim freedom and citizenship rights in the United States. This paper, hence, traces the path to disunion in Jefferson County and the troubled attempts to reunify during the immediate aftermath of the war from the perspective of the largest population demographic in the county—albeit smaller than elsewhere in the South—the cultural conservatives like Beall. Beall’s words serve as some of the best surviving evidence of how most local whites felt toward the attempts to shatter slavery and how difficult it was for those whites to prevent its destruction.

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(in English): This master's thesis is focusing on the issue of military ranks in the armed forces of contemporary Arab states. In the thesis, the terms for military ranks of all branches of the armed forces (ground force, navy, air force) of Arab armies are being discussed. At the same time, the proposed thesis is dealing with the historical and political context of development of military ranks in the region; therefore, there is a focus on early developments of military ranks in the Middle Ages, reform efforts in the Ottoman military of Sultan Mahmut II., and the creation of Egyptian army during the rule of Muḥammad ʿAlīʼs dynasty. In the thesis itself, military traditions of European colonial powers together with the political developments in the second half of the 20th century are also taken into consideration while discussing the ranks and terminology. The rank system of the Armed Forces of the Egyptian Arab Republic serves as a reference for other states throughout the thesis. The thesis is based on analysis of scholarly literature and relevant legislation of Arab countries.